Office of the Historian

126. Memorandum of Conversation1

Moscow, February 22, 1988, 3:30–4:10 p.m.

SUBJECTS

  • Working Group Reports; Preparations for March Ministerial

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.

    • The Secretary
    • National Security Advisor Powell
    • The U.S. delegation
    • EUR/SOV Director Parris (Notetaker)

  • U.S.S.R.

    • Foreign Minister Shevardnadze
    • The Soviet Delegation

SHEVARDNADZE opened the meeting by noting that there was little time—perhaps forty-five minutes. He asked that working group leaders report on what they had accomplished, urging that they be brief and specific.

Nitze, Obukhov, Medvedev, Grinevskiy, Schifter, Adamishin, Armacost, Vorontsov, Sukhodrev and Simons made brief interventions.

[NOTE: INTERVENTIONS WERE IN MOST CASES READ FROM PREPARED DOCUMENTS AT GREAT SPEED, TO SHEVARDNADZE’S REPEATED INJUNCTIONS TO HURRY. IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE TO RECORD THE STATEMENTS, WHICH MERELY SUMMARIZED WORKING GROUP ACTIVITIES. SEE WORKING GROUP RECORDS FOR DETAILS.]

SHEVARDNADZE thanked the working groups for their efforts. He thanked the Secretary as well, noting that he had made some important proposals on many fundamental problems in the nuclear and space area. There had also been a useful discussion of the ABM Treaty, of SLCM’s, ALCM’s, mobile missiles, sublimits and verification. During their meeting that morning, the General Secretary had made some new proposals. Taken together, all of this provided solid capital for the Geneva delegations to put to use, and a good stimulus to their efforts.

On other issues, a good amount of work had been accomplished on human rights and bilateral affairs. Regional discussions during the [Page 783] present visit had been noteworthy for their quality. They had been useful, and some interesting prospects seemed to be emerging.

Shevardnadze noted that working groups had become essentially a permanent feature of the way the two sides did business. The Foreign Ministers had found effective patterns for organizing their own work. They had clear instructions to intensify work in anticipation for the President’s visit. There was little time remaining. Those instructions applied to the experts as well as the ministers. The ministers’ next meeting had been set for March 23. All concerned should, Shevardnadze said, prepare thoroughly so the necessary headway could be made for the summit.

In this connection, Shevardnadze proposed that a protocol be prepared of the results of working groups, in order to measure implementation by the time of the next meeting. If the Secretary agreed, the paper could be worked up that afternoon, and successful the experts had been in fulfilling the plan. Or perhaps the procedure could be initiated in Washington. Noting that some of the rapporteurs had referred to meetings during the course of the spring, Shevardnadze suggested that as many as possible of these take place prior to his March meeting with the Secretary.

In summary, Shevardnadze said, the Secretary’s visit had been constructive and productive. In addition to his meetings with the Foreign Minister, the Secretary had had the opportunity to see Gorbachev and Ryzhkov. A good basis had been laid for the preparation of documents by the time of the President’s visit. Shevardnadze thanked all present for their contributions.

THE SECRETARY thanked the Minister on behalf of the American delegation for his hospitality and for an interesting and intensive program. The Secretary’s meetings had been extremely worthwhile, and he shared Shevardnadze’s positive assessment.

The Secretary said that the results of the visit could be divided into two categories:

—Specific agreements which had been reached and could be considered “in the bin”;

—And areas where tasks had been set and priorities assigned.

The ministers had identified critical path items for a Moscow summit and had tasked the Geneva delegations to work toward these ends. From the U.S. standpoint, we would be pushing our teams hard both in Washington and Geneva. Between now and the ministers’ next meeting, the Secretary expected to see real progress.

The Secretary agreed that it would be advisable to schedule as many meetings as possible before Shevardnadze’s March visit. They could then review progress to ensure that there would be concrete results for the Moscow summit.

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The Secretary thanked Shevardnadze once again for his hospitality, and offered Powell the opportunity to speak.

POWELL seconded the Secretary’s thanks. It was interesting to note how much had been accomplished since the Washington summit. There was much work to be done, but our experiences of the past several months had shown us what was possible.

SHEVARDNADZE agreed that preparing for the Washington summit had been good experience.

The meeting ended with Shevardnadze and the Secretary’s leaving to join Ambassadors Ridgway and Bessmertnykh, who had been working on the joint statement released at the conclusion of the visit.2

  1. Source: Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S Records, Memoranda of Conversations Pertaining to United States and USSR Relations, 1981–1990, Lot 93D188, Moscow—Feb 88—Shultz/Shev. Secret; Sensitive. Drafted by Parris. The meeting took place in the Guesthouse of the Soviet Foreign Ministry. All brackets are in the original.↩
  2. For the text of the joint statement, see Department of State Bulletin, May 1988, p. 42.↩