Final Agreement on Arms Pact Expected Today

MOSCOW — With aides on both sides expressing growing optimism, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze virtually completed work Thursday on a long-pending treaty to ban medium- and shorter-range nuclear missiles.

Although several issues, including the Soviet demand for on-site inspections in Western Europe, remain unsettled, a senior U.S. official said he expects final agreement to be reached before Shultz leaves Moscow tonight.

The same official said that Shultz and Shevardnadze also made enough progress on the far more complicated issue of reducing long-range strategic nuclear forces so that “the makings of a package is there.” The official said Shevardnadze indicated that Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev had placed strategic arms at the top of his agenda for his personal talks with Shultz today.

State Department spokesman Charles Redman and his Soviet counterpart, Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov, held a joint briefing for reporters, joking good-naturedly with each other and seeming to compete for the most optimistic assessment.

Although they shared a podium last month in Washington during similar Shultz-Shevardnadze talks, the Soviet news agency Tass said it was the first joint U.S.-Soviet briefing ever held in Moscow.

“When we talked to them (Shultz and Shevardnadze) after their second session this afternoon, they both told us they considered the meetings to have been constructive, to have been problem-solving in nature and that they thought they had made good progress,” Redman said.

“The Soviet side feels optimistic and regards it as the principal aim of today’s meeting in Moscow to finalize the work to prepare a treaty on the elimination of medium- and shorter-range missiles,” Gerasimov added.

Both sides hope to have the treaty ready for signing by President Reagan and Gorbachev at a summit later this year.

Pershing Matter Dropped

A senior U.S. official said the Soviet side abandoned its last-minute demand to be permitted to keep 72 intermediate-range missiles until West Germany dismantles 72 aging Pershing 1-A missiles.

When Shultz and Shevardnadze met in Washington last month, they agreed to accept Bonn’s offer to dismantle the Pershings once a U.S.-Soviet treaty banning missiles with ranges of between 300 and 3,000 miles is implemented.

The United States then agreed to handle the U.S.-controlled warheads for the West German missiles in the same way as the warheads on U.S. missiles to be eliminated under the treaty.

However, Soviet negotiators at the Geneva arms control talks later insisted that Moscow should be allowed to retain 72 of its own missiles until the West German missiles have been eliminated. U.S. officials said that demand was unacceptable.

But the senior official said that after Thursday’s meeting, concern about the Pershing 1-As “has gone away.”

Nevertheless, there are some prickly issues remaining. For instance, the official said, there was no agreement on the Soviet demand for on-site inspections of the bases in Britain, Italy, Belgium and West Germany where U.S. intermediate-range missiles are deployed. Moscow wants to verify the elimination of those missiles.

The official said other verification issues remain unsettled but declined to spell them out.

In addition to the talks between the ministers, lower level officials established eight “working groups” to hammer out details on arms control, regional disputes, human rights and other matters.

Gerasimov quoted Shevardnadze as saying “there is every opportunity for success if the experts do not let us down.”

U.S. officials said they expect Shultz and Gorbachev to concentrate on the strategic arms reduction talks (START) during their talks today. Soviet officials said earlier that Gorbachev hoped for movement in the talks aimed at reducing by half the superpower arsenals of strategic weapons with ranges of more than 3,000 miles.

‘Star Wars’ Linkage

However, a senior U.S. official said the Soviet side has not softened its insistence on linking a treaty to reduce strategic weapons with measures to curtail the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative, known as “Star Wars.” Reagan has said that such restrictions to the space-based missile defense system are unacceptable.

A senior U.S. official said the talks will end today whether or not an intermediate nuclear forces treaty has been completed, because Shultz has a firm commitment to brief North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers in Brussels on Saturday.

During a visit to a U.S. Embassy reception for Soviet citizens who have been denied permission to emigrate, Shultz reaffirmed U.S. support for human rights.

“Rest assured that we do not forget you,” Shultz said. The guests included Jews who have applied for permission to emigrate to Israel, spouses of American citizens and others seeking to join relatives in the United States.