SHEVARDNADZE SEES SUMMIT HOPE, PLAYS DOWN EXPULSION, DANILOFF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100049-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: September 19, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ARTICLE Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100049-4
ONPAQE WASHINGTON POST
19 September 1986
Shevardnadze Sees '
Summit Hope,
Plays Down Expulsions, Daniloff
L States has insistec that they are not
But Gorbachev comparable. Yesterday, Reagan
repeated that Daniloff was "no spy."
Calls Reporter `Spy Shevardnadze, on his arrival at
I A d A. F D. A-
By David B. Ottaway
and John M. Goshko
Washington Post Stat( Writers
Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze, arriving here yes-
terday for two days of meetings
with Secretary of State George P.
Shultz, said the Soviet Union was
ready for a summit that he said was
already "arranged, settled 50 per-
cent."
The Soviet minister, looking
cheerful and relaxed, played down
both the U.S. decision to expel 25
members of the Soviet mission to
the United Nations and the case of
the detained American reporter
Nicholas Daniloff in remarks to re-
porters.
He said the expulsions were "il-
legal" and a "bad" decision by the
Reagan administration, but gave no
indication that Moscow was about
to take any retaliatory action.
Shevardnadze expressed willing-
ness to discuss the Daniloff case,
which Shultz has said will be at the
top of his agenda today, saying "it
can be resolved."
But Soviet leader Mikhail Gor-
bachev, in his first public remarks
on the Nicholas Daniloff case,
charged yesterday that the U.S.
News & World Report correspon-
dent was a "spy who was caught in
the act" and that his crime was "no-
run-of-the-mill business." Gorba-
chev accused unnamed circles in
the United States of wanting to use
"this espionage case to again spoil
Soviet-American relations ......
[Details on Page A21.1
Gorbachev's description of Dan-
iloff as a spy echoed President Rea-
gan's earlier description. of Gennadi
Zakharov, a Soviet U.N. employe
whose arrest on espionage charges
Aug. 23 apparently provoked Dan-
iloff's arrest in Moscow seven days
later. The Soviets have repeatedly
demanded that the two cases be
treated identically, but the United
STAT
n rews it orce se yes ter y,
said the Soviet Union had strong
doubts whether the Reagan administration was still in-
terested in holding a summit, a sentiment also ex-
pressed by Gorbachev.
In a prepared arrival statement, Shevardnadze said
he had come to Washington to determine the extent of
the Reagan administration's willingness to pursue "the
line" that had emerged from the Geneva summit be-
tween Reagan and Gorbachev last November and to
resolve Soviet doubts as to whether Washington was
still committed to "the spirit of Geneva."
"The state of the Soviet-U.S. relationship is now such
that a lack of forward movement and particularly ret-
rogression in that relationship could for many years to
come leave our two countries in positions of confron-
tation and dangerous contention," Shevardnadze said.
"Everything will depend on the U.S. administration,"
he told reporters.
Shevardnadze referred in his statement to meetings
he would be having in Washington with Shultz and Rea-
gan. However, U.S. officials said a decision on whether
the president would see him had not yet been made.
The foreign minister indicated that he would raise
the 25 expulsions when he meets with Shultz. After
calling them "illegal" and a "bad" decision in remarks to
reporters at Andrews Air Force Base, he added: "I
could, of course, use a stronger expression, too, but
that may be after the meeting."
Regarding Daniloff, Shevardnadze said "such inci-
dents have happened before and may happen in the fu-
ture in relations between states. This is undesirable,
but unfortunately it does happen. On such ocassions, it
is important that political leaders ... act wisely and
with foresight that they do not impede normal relations
between nations, between states."
A senior administration official said yesterday that
Shultz would raise the Daniloff case with Shevardnadze
at the start of their first meeting at 9 a.m. today. She
said Shultz would make clear that the Soviets had to
find a way to release Daniloff, but would also review
"the entirety" of outstanding issues in the U.S.-Soviet
relationship, including arms control, human rights, re-
gional matters amd bilateral issues.
The main objective of the meeting was to determine
where "some momentum" could be generated in prep-
aration for a summit, which the official said the admin-
istration still "assumed" would be held this year as Rea-
gan and Gorbachev had agreed at their first summit.
Continod
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100049-4
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100049-4
But the official said the administration did not expect
Shultz and Shevardnadze to announce a date for the
summit at the end of their two-day meeting Saturday.
At a news conference in New York yesterday, Soviet
U.N. Ambassador Alexander Belonogov charged that
the U.S. decision to expel the 25 Soviets was a "blatant-
ly provocative act" aimed at thwarting a summit meet-
ing between Reagan and Gorbachev.
In Moscow, a spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Min-
istry hinted that the Soviet Union might take retalia-
tory steps, Celestine Bohlen of The Washington Post
Foreign Service reported. "The American side is mak-
ing a mistake to think this provocative step will have no
consequences," spokesman Boris Pyadyshev said, with-
out being specific.
Belonogov said the size of of the Soviet mission was
already "well below" the figure of 218 that the admin-
istration set last March for the Soviets to reach by Oct.
1. Belonogov said the mission now has 205 people and
charged that Vernon A. Walters, U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations, was aware of that fact when he
gave him the expulsion order Wednesday.
Soviet criticism of the expulsion order won some sup-
port yesterday from U.N. Secretary General Javier
Perez de Cuellar, who issued a statement calling the
U.S. action "incompatible" with the 1947 headquarters
agreement between the United States, as host govern-
ment, and the United Nations.
The statement said the United States was seeking a
"collective expulsion" to enforce its decision to reduce
the size of the Soviet mission but that the U.S. right to
expel U.N.-accredited diplomats applied only to specific
individuals engaged in specific acts of misconduct.
The names of those being expelled have not been re-
leased, but an administration official said all 25 were
known or suspected KGB agents.
State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb reiter-
ated yesterday that the decision to order the expulsions
was dictated by the Soviet refusal to cooperate with
U.S. authorities by providing information about which
members were going home. Kalb said that the number
of Soviets in the mission was "over 218."
He refused to answer questions about whether the
department knew exactly how many Soviet mission
members were in New York. On Tuesday, an official at
the U.S. mission in New York said the Soviets then had
precisely 212 personnel present in their U.N. mission,
with valid visas for 17 others.
Belonogov, noting that the 25 persons on the list of
expellees included both diplomats and technical staff,
said the Soviet mission had no obligation to report
changes in mission personnel directly to the U.S. gov-
ernment because "the missions of the U.N. member
states are not in New York as guests of the U.S. gov-
ernment."
He said the Soviet Union reported personnel changes
to the U.N. protocol office, which advises the U.S. mis-
sion, he said. Thus, the United States knew that the So-
viet mission was below 218 persons, he said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100049-4