Diplomacy Zeroing In On Moscow

By Jill Smolowe

He had promised to make tough points and ask even tougher questions. For their part, his Soviet hosts had made it clear that they held him accountable for "frictions" in Franco-Soviet relations. Thus it came as no surprise last week that French Premier Jacques Chirac's visit to Moscow got off to a sharply contentious start.

At a Kremlin banquet, Chirac congratulated his host, Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov, and an unexpected guest, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, on their new policies toward political prisoners and Soviet Jews, but added, "You cannot ignore that from our point of view there is a long way to go." Like British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during her visit to Moscow six weeks earlier, Chirac applauded U.S.-Soviet arms-control negotiations but then defended nuclear deterrence as Europe's peacekeeper over the past 40 years. Ryzhkov replied with a detailed discussion of Soviet arms-reduction aims and complained about France's nuclear policy. "Unfortunately," he declared, "at present we do not see France among those who intervene against nuclear deterrence or those who wish to halt the roulette of military peril in Europe."

The tone, courteous but tough, characterized most of the exchanges during Chirac's three days in Moscow. To some extent the Soviets appeared determined to play down the visit, largely because of France's expulsion last month of six Soviet officials on charges of spying on the Ariane rocket program. The Soviets retaliated in kind. Nonetheless, Chirac had an unscheduled encounter with Physicist Andrei Sakharov and a long meeting with Gorbachev that left the Premier enthusiastic about the General Secretary's reforms. On arms-control issues, however, Chirac retained his skepticism about Moscow's double-zero proposal to eliminate medium- and shorter-range nuclear weapons in Europe.

Out of pique against one of their harshest West European critics, the Soviets were careful not to celebrate Chirac's arrival with anything like the warmth that had greeted Thatcher. The next day, Pravda's front page carried a picture of Gorbachev with a Soviet artist, while the story of Chirac's arrival was consigned to the bottom of the page -- without a picture.

Chirac was one of the beneficiaries of glasnost on his second day in Moscow. At a reception at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, he met Sakharov, the academy's most celebrated -- and recently rehabilitated -- member. The scientist told Chirac that the changes in the Soviet Union could "contribute to stability in the world." Sakharov was less optimistic on human rights in the Soviet Union: it was "very unsatisfactory," he said, that the release of "prisoners of conscience" had been "interrupted." In an earlier aside to French reporters, Sakharov addressed arms control: "Every time there is a chance for a possible step in arms reduction, we should take it. We must not wait for something global."

Chirac went on to a 4 1/2-hour exchange with Gorbachev. Afterward the French Premier praised the Soviet leader's plans for reforms. "What he has in mind is not just profound but rapid," said Chirac. "If it succeeds, and I hope it does, this experience of reform will change the world by the end of the century."

Yet there were moments during the meeting when the two leaders found themselves in what one observer called "cordial disaccord" and another acknowledged as "sharp exchanges." Said Chirac: "Our contact was rapid, alive with interruptions and immediate reactions. I found that style extremely pleasurable." The subject of arms control took up more than half of the meeting. Gorbachev repeatedly expressed his disappointment regarding France's assessment of Moscow's nuclear disarmament proposals. Chirac reiterated his government's acceptance of the zero option, which would remove medium-range missiles from Europe, but reserved judgment about Moscow's double-zero proposal, which would eliminate both medium- and shorter-range missiles, pending further consultation with Paris' West European partners.

NATO's defense ministers, who met last week in Stavanger, Norway, did not resolve that question, though they agreed to back a ban on medium-range weapons in Europe and urged the superpowers to scrap plans to hold 100 of these warheads in reserve outside Europe. Although Britain last week came out in favor of eliminating shorter-range weapons as well, the West Germans, like Chirac, are still questioning the wisdom of such a move.

With reporting by Jordan Bonfante with Chirac