PRESIDENT TO MEET GORBACHEV 2 DAYS IN FALL IN GENEVA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630064-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: July 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630064-1
ARTICLE APPEARX NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE
3 July 1985
PRESIDENT TO MEET
GORBACHEV 2 DAYS
IN FALL IN GENEVA
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
spe.ai to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 2? President
Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the
Soviet leader, have agreed to hold a
two-day meeting in Geneva in late
November, Administration officials
said today.
A senior Administration official said
'a formal announcement of the meeting,
on Nov. 19 and 20, would be made
Wednesday. Anatoly F. Dobrynin, the
Soviet Ambassdor to the United States,
conveyed Moscow's acceptance of the
plans for the meeting during an unpub-
licized session with Secretary of State
George P. Shultz early Monday after-
noon, Administration officials said.
Mr. Shultz will hold a news conference
after the announcement Wednesday.
Given the relative brevity of the
meeting, American officials said they
did not think there would be time to ne-
gotiate any breakthroughs on outstand-
ing issues. But they said the meeting
could be used as an occasion to an-
nounce agreements already worked out
in such areas as commerce, cultural
and consular exchanges. They added
that it might also give some stimulus to
the deadlocked arms control talks and
promote an easing of tensions on re-
gional issues.
`Expectations Are Not Great'
"Our expectations are not great at
all," a senior Administration official
said of the meeting. "Its main purpose
will be to engage the new Soviet leader-
ship and for each side to have a better
understanding of the other."
Officials said that no agenda had
been set for the session, but that with
nearly five months to go, Mr. Shultz
was expected to begin laying the
groundwork for the meeting with
Eduard A. Shevardnadze, who re-
placed Andrei A. Gromyko as Soviet
Foreign Minister today.
American officials said they ex-
pected Mr. Shultz and Mr. Shevardna-
dze to meet in Helsinki on July 31 and
Aug. 1 while they are there for celebra-
tions marking the 10th anniverary of
the signing by 35 nations of the docu-
ment on cooperation and security in
Europe.
They are also likely to meet at the
opening of the United Nations General
Assembly in New York in September.
This would be Mr. Reagan's first
meeting with the top Soviet leader, and
comes after months of discussions that
began last March when Vice President
Bush conveyed an invitation to Mr.
Gorbachev to come to Washington
later this year. Mr. Bush was in Mos
cow for the funeral of Konstantin U.
Chernenko, Mr. Gorbachev's predeces-
sor. Mr. Gorbachev promptly re-
sponded positively to the idea of a
meeting, but indicated that he pre-
ferred to meet in Helsinki.
The United States proposed Geneva,
a State Department official said, and
this was accepted by Moscow.
At one point last spring, there was a
belief fostered by Soviet sources that
Mr. Gorbachev might come to New
York for ceremonies marking the 40th
anniversary of the United Nations and
that the initial Reagan-Gorbachev
meeting might be limited to a "get-to-
gether," as distinct from the kind of
elaborate "summit meetings" held by
Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and
Richard M. Nixon with their Soviet
counterparts.
But Mr. Shultz has been arguing that
it made no sense just to have a session
that produced no discernible results.
He has said such a meeting should be
well-prepared and hold open the possi-
bility of concluding or announcing
agreements.
Arms Negotiations in Geneva
By announcing a meeting nearly five I
months ahead of time, a senior State
Department official said, the two sides
in effect are providing incentives to
their bureaucracies to make progress
on the host of unresolved issues. The
most important set of talks are going
on in Geneva. They cover reductions in
each side's strategic and medium-
range nuclear arms and efforts to pre-
vent an arms race in space.
Both Mr. Gorbachev, in a speech last
week, and the State Department have
said that after two rounds of talks, no
progress has been achieved in the
Geneva talks. It is possible, one official
said, that the imminence of a meeting
between the two leaders might make
both sides more flexible.
The disclosure of the plans for the
meeting occurred at about the same
time that Mr. Gorbachev surprised the
American intelligence community by
announcing in Moscow that Mr.
Gromyko was stepping down as tor-
eign Minister after 28 years in the job
and becoming the Soviet chief of state.
Mr. Gorbachev's three predecessors,
Mr. Chernenko, Yuri V. Andropov, and
Leonid I. Brezhnev, had held both the
top party and state jobs, although Mr.
tsreznnev am not pecome me neaa OT
state until he had been in power for 10
years.
One veteran Administration Krem-
lin-watcher said that there had been
speculation soon after Mr. Gorbachev
took over in March that he ml: ht name
Mr. Gromy o to estate post, .ut at
as Mr. Gorbachev began accumulating
power, there was a' consensus" in the
intelligence community that he would
take it for himself.
The assumption here is that Mr.
Gromyko, who remains a member of
the ruling Politburo, will continue to
play an important role as a policy
maker in foreign affairs. He is the only
member of the Politburo to have any
significant experience with Western
leaders and his life has been dedicated
primarily to East-West relations.
c; i... ? ?
Party official with no experience out-
side of the Soviet republic of Georgia, it
is considered likely here that Mr. Gor-
bachev and other Politburo members
will rely to some extent on Mr. Gromy-
ko's advice. ?
Bernard Kalb, the State Department
spokesman, said today that Mr. Rea-
gan and Mr. Shultz were sending mes-
sages to Mr. Gromyko and Mr. She-
vardnadze. He said the United States
would pledge in the messages "our de-
sire to work with the Soviet leaders,ti.ip
to resolve outstanding issues between
our two countries, even as we defend
our interests wherever necessary."
"We believe we can and should re-
solve outstanding problems in all areas
of the agenda before us," he said. "The
United States is always ready to make
its contribution in this regard."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630064-1