Word: bonneli
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...Washington bridled at the news that West German and Soviet diplomats would maintain regular contact on the missile issue as the Geneva talks progressed. Despite West German assurances that no "back channel" was contemplated, one State Department official declared: "It is certainly a complication." State fears that separate Bonn-Moscow discussions might only help the Soviet Union's attempt to play NATO members off against one another...
...three-day Bonn summit came on the eve of the opening this week in Geneva of a new round of U.S.-Soviet arms talks devoted specifically to the problems surrounding medium-range missiles. Launched largely at the instigation of NATO's European members, these negotiations will seek to find ways of reducing the numbers of, if not eliminating altogether, the 250 Soviet SS-20s and 350 older SS-4s and SS-5s already trained on Western Europe, and the 572 U.S. Pershing II and cruise missiles scheduled to be deployed by 1983 in West Germany, Britain, Italy, Belgium...
Hoping to encourage Soviet cooperation in Geneva, U.S. officials greeted Brezhnev's proposal in Bonn politely. "They've got an interest and a stake in legitimate negotiations, and we're going to pursue that as far as we can," Reagan said in an interview with ABC-TV. Said Secretary of State Alexander Haig: "Our message is going through." But, speaking privately, U.S. diplomats saw no great change in the Soviet approach...
...Bonn summit revealed agreement on at least one issue: neither Brezhnev nor Reagan is anxious for a summit face-off of their own. Schmidt's efforts to promote the idea of a Brezhnev-Reagan meeting were quickly brushed aside by his Soviet guests. In Washington, officials continue to believe that such a confrontation would be counterproductive in the present climate. "Without a guaranteed outcome, it would fall flat," an official explains. Whether and when the leaders of the two superpowers will get together may depend on the progress of the arms talks that begin in Geneva this week...
Compared with Leonid Brezhnev, Ronald Reagan travels tourist class. The Soviet leader's 110-man entourage (the largest official delegation ever to accompany a visiting foreign leader to Bonn) included high Soviet government officials, interpreters, typists, 40 security men (five of them generals), 27 communications men, three doctors, a nurse, two waiters, a chambermaid, a cook and a barber...