Carter has new agency for Soviet relations

Press, 20 July 1977, Page 8

Carter has new agency for Soviet relations

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Carter has quietly approved the formation o’ a new inter-agency, committee, headed by the State Department, to coordinate his Administration’s policies towards the Soviet Union, the New York Times News Service reports. Administration officials say the purpose of the new group will be to give the President — particularly during the present period of strained relations — the best possible advice on Soviet affairs and to ensure that the various agencies of the Government conduct their relations with the Russians in a co-ordinated fashion.

The group, which has been decided upon only in the last week, will have the formal title of the Inter-agency Coordinating ■ Committee on United States-Soviet Affairs, officials say. Its co-chairmen will be Mr Marshall Shul-

man, who is the senior adviser on Soviet affairs to the Secretary (Mr Cyrus Vance) and Mr George S. Vest, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs. They will report the group’s decisions and recommendations to Mr Vance, who will then bring them to the White House’s attention, either directly or through Mr Zbigniew Brzezinski, who heads the National Security Council staff, and is regarded as the chief Presidential adviser on Soviet relations.

Officials say the following Government bodies will have representatives on the committee: the Defence Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, the Treasury, Commerce, and Agriculture Departments, the White House Science Advisers Office, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the National

Aeronautics and Space Agency. Administration officials say they believe this fairly large committee will not be involved in making policy on such sensitive issues as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, but with ensuring that negotiations with the Russians on exchange programmes and other issues such as trade did not take place in a policy vacuum. It is believed by officials that this is the first time an inter-agency committee has been created solely to coordinate policy towards one country.

It reflects the high priority given Soviet policy in this Administration, whose relations have been marred primarily over strong Soviet reactions to President Carter’s statements in support of human rights and to his proposals for reductions in strategic arms.