Muskie, Gromyko to meet on European A-reductions

Secretary of State Edmund Muskie and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko will meet in New York Sept. 25 for preliminary talks on reducing the vast arsenal of European nuclear weapons, an administration source said Saturday. The US has long proposed discussions with the Soviets on reducing the number of medium- range nuclear weapons in Europe, but the idea was stalled after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviets have since accused the Western powers of increasing the chances of a nuclear exchange by not discussing such a reduction.