United States Armed Forces Europe

"In the past, we often rejected your ideas just because they came from your side," Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze told Secretary of State James A. Baker III in Moscow last week, according to a U.S. official who was present. "Now we've realized that a lot of your ideas are good ideas, and we can accept them." Moscow's foreign minister put that new principle into startling practice this week by agreeing, swiftly and stunningly, to a pair of U.S.

As both sides offered new ideas to speed arms control talks, the Soviet Union appeared Thursday to remove one of the last major obstacles to a U.S.-Soviet strategic nuclear arms reduction treaty by eliminating linkage between the treaty and the U.S. "Star Wars" program. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze told visiting Secretary of State James A.

President Bush met here with his top national security advisers Monday as he completed preparations for this week's North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting, saying that he expects the meeting to produce "interesting developments" but no "bombshell." "I don't want to understate where we're going or overstate it," Bush said as reporters waited to see Secretary of State James A. Baker III and other top advisers arrive at Bush's vacation home.

The Pentagon will dispatch two additional heavy armored divisions to Saudi Arabia in a move that signals a fundamental shift to an offensive military posture in the tense Persian Gulf, Bush Administration officials said Wednesday night. The divisions will be transferred from Europe and will add as many as 100,000 troops and 700 advanced M1-A1 tanks to the 238,000 American troops and 1,300 tanks already deployed in the region as part of Operation Desert Shield, officials said.

President Bush's announcement Thursday that he is sending nearly a quarter million more troops to the Persian Gulf reflects the military payoff for the end of the Cold War and 18 months of massive change in the international balance of power. No longer needed to stand guard against the Soviet Union in Europe, an entire Army corps--about 110,000 soldiers--will be moved from Germany to Saudi Arabia, cutting U.S. armed forces in Europe in half.

U.S. and Soviet arms negotiators meeting in New York have reached agreement on virtually all outstanding issues on slashing conventional forces in Europe, from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The settlement opens the way for the Europe-wide summit Nov. 19-21 to sign a treaty that will essentially codify the new post-Cold War political shape of the Continent.

About 24 hours before the announcement of next Sunday's U.S.-Soviet summit, a reporter asked Mikhail S. Gorbachev about his travel plans. "I will limit my trips abroad to the minimum in this period--to the possible minimum," the Soviet president replied after two days of meetings on how to salvage the economy.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said Thursday that they are near agreement on a treaty limiting conventional arms in Europe, apparently clearing the way for a summit meeting of European and North American leaders in Paris in November. "We have made real headway," Shevardnadze said after a two-hour meeting in Baker's Waldorf Astoria Hotel suite. Baker agreed, saying, "We made some good progress."

Secretary of State James A. Baker III declared Monday that the landmark U.S.-Soviet agreement on troop ceilings in Europe, reached only seven months ago, has been "overtaken by events" and that the future level of U.S. forces on the Continent is "very much in the air." Baker's statement confirmed that the issue of East-West forces levels was not resolved at the Helsinki summit Sunday. It will be taken up by Baker, who was in Brussels on Monday, during a visit to Moscow this week.

The United States signaled the Soviet Union Tuesday that negotiations on troop ceilings in Europe are jeopardized by Moscow's interpretation of how the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty cuts the numbers of weapons such as tanks. The new talks, aimed at reducing manpower in line with the treaty's weapons cuts, will begin today in Vienna as scheduled, according to State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler.