Kohl Expects ’87 Pact on Mid-Range Missiles

BONN — West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said in an interview Sunday that he expects Washington and Moscow to agree this year to abolish medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

The newspaper Bild quoted him as saying, “I consider the chances of agreement in 1987 to be positive.”

Kohl said that Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and President Reagan have “taken important steps in recent days to make successful negotiations possible in Geneva.” The West is aware of the threat of short-range nuclear missiles, and Bonn wanted negotiations to start on reducing these immediately after agreement had been reached on medium-range types, he said.

The goal should be to reduce the short-range weapons, of which the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact countries have the most, to an equal figure at a low level, Kohl said.