Diplomacy: Winks and Nods in Geneva

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In a bid for European support, Moscow drops hints of a compromise

They meet two or three times a week, either at the ornate 19th century mansion that serves as the Soviet Union's U.N. mission in Geneva or in the glass-and-steel office building that houses the U.S. headquarters near by. Although the discussions between U.S. Arms Negotiator Paul Nitze and his Soviet counterpart, Yuli Kvitsinsky, are being conducted behind a veil of secrecy, West Europeans have been watching assiduously for any hint, wink or nod that might reveal how the talks are progressing. Reason: one of the most emotionally charged issues of the 1983 international calendar, namely whether NATO will deploy 572 new U.S.-built nuclear missiles starting next year to respond to the buildup of Soviet intermediate-range SS-20 missiles aimed at Western Europe. What NATO will do hinges on the outcome of the negotiations; so when word was leaked from Washington last week that the Soviets had floated ideas for a compromise, U.S. officials warily watched to see what response it would draw from edgy West Europeans.

The leak came at an awkward moment for the Reagan Administration, which had been embroiled in a dispute with Congress over funding of the controversial MX missile. Barely a week before, during the annual meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Secretary of State George Shultz had got a reaffirmation of West European support for NATO's missile-basing scheme on the Continent. As his two-week European tour drew to a close, Shultz did his best to minimize the importance of a possible shift in the Soviet position. He said in Paris after a meeting with President François Mitterrand that even if the Soviets made a proposal along the lines now hinted at, it would not be "a very interesting proposition." During an impromptu news conference, President Reagan noted that the ideas floated by the Soviets were not "adequate" and would "leave us at a considerable disadvantage."

The maneuvering in Geneva generated a great deal of interest in West European capitals. In an unusual statement, the government of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher welcomed the rumors of progress, saying a Soviet offer "may be a step in the right direction." The West German Cabinet refrained from public comment on the matter, but officials in Bonn privately expressed disappointment at the U.S. Administration's outright rejection of what was seen as a Soviet trial balloon. Although French President Mitterrand went out of his way to tell Shultz that he firmly backed the U.S. negotiating stance, he has said that he thought the outcome could be somewhere between the opening U.S. and Soviet positions. Conceded a U.S. policymaker: "It is the long-anticipated next move in the Soviet peace offensive, but we still aren't ready for it."