Reagan and Gorbachev: We renounce any intention of achieving military superiority; we will prevent war between us

President Reagan returned to the U.S. via London □ A visit promised to foreign journalists to the capital of Soviet Armenia was canceled □ American companies to establish petrochemical complexes in Siberia □ Shultz set out to report on the meeting to NATO countries □ Hammer signed a huge-cost economic agreement in Siberia

President Ronald Reagan arrived in London yesterday on his way to the U.S., at the conclusion of the summit conference in the Soviet Union. At Moscow airport he expressed his gratitude to his hosts and his satisfaction with the visit. “We part as friends,” he said.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who took leave of the U.S. president in a full military ceremony, remarked for his part that the process of rapprochement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was too slow. The Soviets began dismantling the large press centers, and the Americans packed their baggage and the sophisticated equipment they had brought.

Reagan dozes

The Soviet organizers unexpectedly canceled yesterday a trip they had promised journalists to Yerevan, the capital of Soviet Armenia. At first they offered the journalists a series of cities for sightseeing visits after the summit, but everyone naturally preferred to sign up for the trip to Armenia, which was supposed to be the first visit by Western journalists to the place since the disturbances there began. The list filled quickly, the journalists paid, but immediately after the summit ended the Soviets announced that sudden floods in Armenia forced them to cancel the trip.

President Reagan gave the impression that the visit was tiring him more and more. On the last evening at the Bolshoi Ballet he appeared to doze several times during the slow passages, and jumped when the orchestra raised the volume. His wife, Nancy, by contrast, spoke enthusiastically with Gorbachev, through an interpreter. The pieces that were successful were Shostakovich’s “Tango”; Khachaturian’s “Spartacus”; and “Romeo and Juliet.” At the end, the dancers applauded the Reagans and the Gorbachevs, who in turn applauded the artists.

First fruits

In the joint statement by the two leaders before they parted, they expressed their desire to continue Soviet-American talks “in order to help the parties involved in regional conflicts find peaceful solutions that will advance their independence, freedom and security.” Regarding human-rights issues, the statement said that dialogue between the two superpowers would continue in this area as well.

The preamble to the statement said that the two leaders regarded the Moscow summit as an important step in the process of stabilizing Soviet-American relations; that they were firmly resolved to prevent war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, whether nuclear or conventional; and that they declared their renunciation of any intention to achieve military superiority.

The Moscow summit conference had already yielded its first fruits the day before yesterday, when the two large American companies “Combustion Engineering” and “McDermott International” signed an agreement to establish two large petrochemical complexes in Tomolsk and Surgut in western Siberia.

The complexes will exploit Siberia’s large reserves of natural gas to produce rubber and plastics, which are used in the manufacture of consumer goods.

Meanwhile, Jewish businessman Armand Hammer, owner of the “Occidental Petroleum” company, reported that he too had signed an agreement to establish a new plastics complex in western Siberia, at a cost of $6 billion. On the same occasion, Hammer announced that he would also establish the first golf club in the Soviet Union.

Upon arriving in London, President Reagan had tea with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, where a cheering crowd welcomed him. Later he dined with his longtime friend, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and briefed her on the Moscow talks.

Secretary of State George Shultz gave a similar briefing at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where he arrived directly from Moscow.