Bush Calls Gorbachev, Is Hopeful on Arms, Summit

After a telephone call to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, President Bush on Tuesday expressed optimism that the arms-control differences blocking a summit meeting between the United States and the Soviet Union can be ironed out. He said he may visit Moscow this summer.

With the Soviets encountering difficulties in Washington as they try to obtain $1.5 billion in agricultural credits and other economic assistance, Bush said he reassured the Soviet leader in a telephone call Monday afternoon that he is not trying to draw away from his promises of help.

“I went out of my way to tell him that we weren’t playing games,” Bush said. “We’re not trying to say one thing and mean another, and I hope Mikhail Gorbachev understands this. I think he does.”

The next turn in the halting course toward a superpower summit--which Bush and Gorbachev had said early in the year would take place during the first half of 1991--is likely to occur this weekend in Lisbon, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh are scheduled to attend a conference in Portugal marking the end of 16 years of civil war in Angola.

Bush spoke with reporters as he began a round of golf and again during a news conference as he wound up an extended Memorial Day holiday at his summer home here.

He said that “if the Soviets will move a little bit” toward the U.S. position on implementation of an already-signed treaty on conventional forces in Europe, differences over the treaty could be resolved and the two superpowers could then “move quickly to close” negotiations on reducing their arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons.

In Moscow, the mood was upbeat after what Vitaly N. Ignatenko, Gorbachev’s press secretary, described as the “long midnight conversation” with Bush.

Gorbachev expects that differences between Moscow and Washington on the CFE treaty will be settled this week when Baker and Bessmertnykh meet in Lisbon, Ignatenko said.

The press secretary also said that “the summit meeting will take place--that I can say now,” although he added that no date has yet been set. “The atmosphere around this conversation between the two presidents shows real preparation for the summit meeting.”

Moscow has come to recognize that agreement on the conventional forces treaty is the key to three things: concluding a treaty slashing the two superpowers’ strategic nuclear arsenals by more than a third, holding a summit in Moscow and making progress on what has recently emerged as the top Soviet priority: Western economic assistance.

In an Oval Office meeting last week, Bush said, he asked visiting Gen. Mikhail A. Moiseyev, chief of staff of the Soviet armed forces, about differences remaining between the superpowers on a strategic arms reduction treaty. Moiseyev raised a thumb and forefinger about an inch apart, Bush said, and declared: “This much difference.”

At the heart of the dispute over the treaty on conventional forces is a Soviet contention that its “naval infantry”--units comparable to U.S. Marines--are exempt from the treaty’s limits. The United States and the other signatories, which include most European nations, disagree.

“I want to go to Moscow, and . . . I don’t know that the Soviets have believed this all along, because there’s speculation in our papers that we’re pulling away,” Bush said.

“We want to stay engaged. We want to talk. Want him (Gorbachev) to come back (to Washington) at some point,” he said.

As a result of his telephone call, there is “a little cause for optimism, no breakthrough, a little optimism” on arms control, the President said.

“We’re going to stay this course, and we’re going to iron out these difficulties, and then we’ll see how we go on some of these technical matters like MFN (most-favored-nation status) and credits and these points that are very important,” he said, referring to granting the Soviet Union lower-tariff trade preferences and the Soviet request for agricultural credits.

Trade preferences had been held up until Soviet citizens are legally entitled to emigrate freely, a matter on which the Soviet Parliament adopted enabling legislation earlier this month. Agricultural assistance, through which the United States would guarantee up to $1.5 billion in commercial bank loans to the Soviets for the purchase of American grain, has been delayed because the Soviets are not considered a credit-worthy borrower by the international banking community.

Bush said that the question of agricultural credits will be discussed during meetings in Washington this week between U.S. officials and three visiting Soviet envoys led by Yevgeny M. Primakov, Gorbachev’s principal foreign policy adviser.

“The Soviets make the point, and I think with some justification, that they have never failed to pay on ag (agricultural) credits--never failed to pay back. I think they look at me now and say: ‘What’s the President doing? We have never failed on this.’

“And I’m looking at it in terms of overall reforms and wanting to see the credits, if granted, help. Not just alleviate hunger, but be used perhaps to help in their whole agricultural system,” the President said, referring to the U.S. interest in seeing the Soviet agriculture distribution system overhauled.

“If we can get our arms-control agreements, get our summit going, we can accomplish a lot,” Bush said.

Asked about the timing of a summit, he replied: “Sooner rather than later.”

Gorbachev won important support on Tuesday for his participation in the annual economic summit conference of the seven leading industrial democracies, scheduled this year for London in July, when former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said he should be invited to attend.

Thatcher, speaking in Moscow to the Soviet Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said the West could promote further reforms by extending loans and credits to the Soviet Union.

“The West can help by bringing the Soviet Union more fully into the international economic community, for example by inviting President Gorbachev to be associated with the economic summit in London,” Thatcher said. “I believe that would be beneficial to the next stage of economic reform.”

At a news conference in Tokyo, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said that he and Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu agreed that, if Gorbachev is invited to the summit, “neither of us is opposed.”

Gorbachev has asked to speak to the meeting of the so-called Group of Seven in hopes of advancing his government’s bid for Western economic aid.

French and European Community officials already have said that they would not oppose Gorbachev’s attendance and Italy has enthusiastically endorsed it, but Bush and British Prime Minister John Major, who is the summit’s host, have deferred a decision.

On another subject, Press Secretary Fitzwater said that Bush will soon unveil an initiative “for combatting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, beginning in the Middle East.”

The initiative will be launched in a speech at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., Fitzwater said. The speech is expected to propose barring Israel from producing material for nuclear weapons and requiring Arab nations to give up chemical weapons.

During his news conference, Bush responded to sharp criticism by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) of his decision, announced Monday, to continue China’s most-favored-nation trade status.

“I recognize that I’ve got a hard sell from some congressmen who did not listen to what I said,” Bush said.

He added that those who base their objections to granting trade preferences to China on Beijing’s violations of human rights are choosing “the easy cop-out, the easy election-year politics,” rather than “good foreign policy.”

Gerstenzang reported from Kennebunkport and Parks reported from Moscow.