ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990                   TAG: 9005170304
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Medium


BUSH, BAKER SAY BALTIC CRISIS HINDERS TALKS WITH SOVIETS

Secretary of State James Baker, starting three days of pre-summit talks with top Soviet officials, said Wednesday that the standoff in the Baltic republics is "not encouraging" and hinted that a Soviet crackdown might doom Moscow's chances for long-sought trade concessions.

President Bush, speaking at a news conference in Washington shortly after Baker began his first meeting with Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, said that Soviet pressure on Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia "certainly puts some tension" in superpower relations just two weeks before the start of his summit talks with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Baker and Shevardnadze met for four hours Wednesday night. After that meeting ended, arms control specialists began a late-night working session to prepare for another Baker-Shevardnadze meeting today.

Shortly before the first meeting, Baker said the United States and the Soviet Union remain far apart on key elements of a proposed treaty to limit long-range nuclear weapons despite a new U.S. proposal that was submitted to the Soviets when he and Shevardnadze met earlier this month in Bonn.

Shevardnadze told reporters that the U.S. initiative, which had not been disclosed previously, was "very useful." He said the Soviet response was "constructive." But Baker said Moscow's reply "leaves us with some ground we still have to cover."

U.S. officials refused to provide details of the proposal.

Baker said that the latest American initiative leaves "the ball in the other court" awaiting a more comprehensive reply from Moscow during this round of talks.

Bush said in Washington that the possibility of an arms control agreement at the May 30-June 3 summit will be determined by the outcome of the Baker-Shevardnadze talks.

"I would not predict that these matters cannot be resolved in time for the summit," Bush said.

For his part, Baker said the talks will be difficult.

"It is our desire - I hope it is the desire of the Soviets, they say it is - that we can close the gaps on all of the major substantive issues by the time the two presidents get together in Washington in only two weeks," he said. "But we still have a pretty good road to travel."

Both Bush and Baker said they do not expect the Baltic crisis to torpedo the summit in Washington. The president noted pointedly that the United States "negotiated with the Soviets when all Eastern Europe was in captivity."

But Baker strongly implied that increased Soviet repression in the three secession-minded republics would end Moscow's chances for an early waiver of the Jackson-Vanik law, which for more than a decade has denied to the Soviet Union the most-favored-nation trade status. Without that status, enjoyed by China and most of Eastern Europe as well as other U.S. trading partners, Soviet goods are subject to much higher tariffs than apply to the products of other nations.

Earlier in the day, Baker met with 15 Soviet "refuseniks," who have sought in vain to emigrate. Noting that the United States is still following 79 cases of long-term refusal, Baker told the group, "It's very important to us that these people be permitted to freely emigrate from the Soviet Union."



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