World Notes Soviet Union

Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev was full of promises last week. At a speech in Vladivostok, he pledged to withdraw six Soviet regiments, amounting to some 8,000 troops, from Afghanistan by the end of the year. He cited his offer as proof that Moscow is "striving to speed political settlement" in the torn country, which the Soviets invaded in 1979.

But after reading the fine print in Gorbachev's offer, Western military analysts pooh-poohed it. Noting that three of the six regiments were antiaircraft units, they pointed out that Afghanistan's mujahedin resistance fighters lack an air force. Gorbachev's list also included an armored regiment not suited for the mountainous terrain where most of the fighting is taking place. In Islamabad, Resistance Leader Sibghatullah Mujaddadi asked, "How many years will it take for the withdrawal of all the 120,000 Soviet troops if pullback of 8,000 is going to take six months?"

In the same speech, Gorbachev dangled the prospect of another kind of troop reduction. To help create an "atmosphere of good neighborliness" with China, he said, the Soviets were considering a "substantial" withdrawal of troops from Mongolia and are willing to discuss joint force reductions along the Sino-Soviet frontier.

The goodwill gestures extended all the way to Washington. Soviet and U.S. officials agreed that Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze would meet in September to begin planning a second Reagan-Gorbachev summit.