Brezhnev set to add weight to S.A.L.T.

Press, 24 October 1978, Page 9

Brezhnev set to add weight to S.A.L.T.

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The Soviet President (Mr Leonid Brezhnev) was yesterday expected to join the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks as the negotiations moved towards their final phase. Though • no breakthrough was reported at the end of nearly eight hours of talks, the United States side sounded an optimistic note in the search for an elusive new treaty. A spokesman for the United States Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance) declined to use the word “progress” to describe the talks, but emphasised that Mr Vance had called them constructive. The spokesman, Mr Hodding Carter, gave no details of the discussions, but repeated that the Secretary “is not given to excessive use of adjectives.” The talks were expected i to resume with the Soviet! Foreign Secretary (Mr Andrei Gromyko) leading the Soviet delegation across the table from Mr Vance and the United States negotiating team. Mr Brezhnev was expected to join the talks within hours. Although there seemed little likelihood that the talks would continue beyond their planned conclusion, Mr Carter told the American press

that Mr Vance “obviously is willing to stay as long as it takes. “At this point in negotiations,” Mr Carter said, “the issues that, are left can only be described as substantive.’’ Tass news agency, giving the official Soviet report >n the first day’s talks, offered no details and did not characterise the discussions beyond saying they would continue. The impediments to a treaty restricting strategic bombers and inter-continen-tal ballistic missiles in 1985 are more than just matters of detail, although some compromises have been struck in recent months.

Four key issues remain to be resolved during the course of these Kremlin discussions or further meetings: The kind of limitations to be imposed on the United States Cruise and Soviet missiles; Details of restricting the types and sizes of the new United States and Soviet missiles during the span of the treaty; The timing for retiring about 250 Soviet bombers and missiles to reach the tentative ceiling of 2250 weapons; and Details of the way the Soviets will agree to limit deployment and refuelling of their Backfire bomber.