The Leverage of Linkage at Madrid

...Linkage is built into the Helsinki Final Act itself...

...A striking feature of Madrid has been the remarkable degree of unity in protesting the invasion of Afghanistan...

...The United States and Canada have formally proposed a meeting of this kind, and the West is insistent upon it as part of its linkage strategy...

...in the Madrid forum (as compared with only six cases at Belgrade...

...Last February 23, at the 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Party chief Leonid I. Brezhnev agreed to having this embrace all of European Russia (rather than a distance of 150 miles into Russia, as spelled out in the Helsinki Accords), but insisted upon a commensurate Western "concession...

...his signature is on the Final Act...

...Not to be overlooked either is the fact that the setting has made possible continuous, at times helpful exchanges between the United States and the USSR...

...DETENTE'S LAST STAND The Leverage of Linkage at Madrid BY WILLIAM KOREY Resumption of the deadlocked Helsinki Final Act review conference in Madrid following a three-month adjournment is widely looked upon as an exercise in futility...

...And neither is consonant with Kremlin aims...

...While the first three conditions have been accepted by the Kremlin, complications have arisen in discussions of what has come to be called the "geographic zone...

...On the contrary, Helsinki has been and still is integral to Brezhnev's policy...

...From nato's viewpoint, it would be unfortunate if the proposed parley on confidence building became merely another Soviet propaganda show...

...The neutral nations tried to break the deadlock with a formula calling for the confidence building measures to cover the whole of Europe "with adjoining sea area and air space...

...The effectiveness of the coordination transcends the Helsinki proceedings, for it helps undergird discussions on the Theater Nuclear Force, on arms control and on broader global questions...

...Specifically, this means that advancement in the security area (Basket I) or in the trade and exchange area (Basket II)?both devoutly sought by the USSR?ineluctably necessitates a similar advance in human rights (Basket III...

...Consequently, the West has insisted that the "measures" to be dealt with at the meeting must be militarily significant, verifiable, politically binding, and applicable to the entire European continent...

...It was then strongly hinted that whatever measures might be adopted should in some way apply as well to the eastern territory of the United States and Canada...

...This may ultimately permit the strategy of linkage to yield positive, if limited, results...

...Kampelman, with the aid of the British, has performed wonders in helping convert the previous discordant voices into a unified whole...

...Sixty-five individual violations, including the cases of Anatoly Shcharansky, Andrei Sakharov and Viktor Brailovsky have been cited William Korey is International Policy Research director of B'nai B'rith...

...At least a dozen nato countries have participated in the effort, in sharp contrast to their silence at Belgrade...

...The West, particularly Ambassador Max Kampelman, the chief American delegate in Madrid, has already contributed enormously to the Helsinki process by a massive consciousness-raising effort on behalf of human rights...

...Impressively, it is not only the Americans who have raised critical cases...

...At Madrid, 25 other countries, including the neutrals, have condemned Moscow's move...

...Even during the frustrating earlier sessions begun last November 11, in several areas a certain marked?albeit hardly decisive-progress occurred that far outdistanced what was achieved at the 1977-78 Belgrade review conference...

...Why not bring in Soviet Asia...

...The scandalously egregious arrests of 47 members of Helsinki monitoring groups in the USSR cry out for public discussion...

...Consciousness-raising could be further pursued at an official post-Madrid conclave...

...Yet detente's last remaining institution should not be written off too quickly...

...so does the vicious crackdown on Jewish emigration, and the Soviets' repression of cultural and ethnic rights...

...Instead, it has tried to leave the impression that its participation in another review depends upon the West's agreeing to Soviet terms for a military security meeting...

...The next review conference is expected to be held in 1983 or '84 in Bucharest or Vienna, with the latter a likelier choice...

...That's where the linkage strategy has put it...

...Notwithstanding the interminable stonewalling of the Soviet negotiators, headed by chain-smoking Kremlin ideologue Leonid Ilyichev, modest forward steps have been taken with respect to religious rights and guidelines for emigration procedures to facilitate the reunion of families...

...That there has been some limited progress is largely due to the fact that the Kremlin is anxious to have a separate Madrid-sponsored conference on " confidence and security building measures," which would focus on such matters as reporting military maneuvers, plus a later full-scale meeting on disarmament...

...In any event, not merely on the geographic dispute but on the overall question of balancing confidence building and human rights conferences, the ball in the Soviet court...

...What would represent some kind of "balance" to Soviet aspirations is a Madrid-sponsored meeting of experts in the human rights field to air problems and difficulties in fulfilling the Helsinki Final Act...

...All of its 10 basic principles, says the Act, are to be "equally" applied "taking into account theothers...

...Helsinki was his personal aspiration...

...By a curious irony, Madrid has been the site of the only current ongoing American-Soviet dialogue, involving over 100 private meetings thus far...

...And if the Reagan Administration continues to determinedly pursue its "strategy of linkage" at the resumed meetings, as it is expected to, Madrid could have a significant positive effect on East-West relations...

...The West accepted...

...Helpful wording critical of terrorism-a subject of keen interest to the Reagan Administration?has been approved, too, along with corresponding improvements involving economic issues and cultural exchanges...

...Unresolved, too, is a decision on the place and date for the next review conference of the Helsinki signatories...

...The West German Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, has been particularly insistent on making this link...

...The consensus-based on what the Russians are known to have told their Warsaw Pact allies, and a commitment made during the preparatory sessions for Madrid-is that the Kremlin is bluffing...

...The review conference also has served as something of a deterrent to a Soviet military intervention in Poland...

...The Madrid meeting was stalemated for months essentially by the artificially created geographic zone controversy...

...For meanwhile it is benefiting most by airing critical issues, and by sustaining the spirit of Soviet and other dissenters...

...Whether the Soviets will be as adamant during the third round just under way at Madrid of course remains to be seen...

...Moscow, refusing to budge from its wider demand, rebuffed the neutrals...

...These are patently intended as pro-Soviet propaganda exercises, and the small concessions tendered the West thus far are scarcely sufficient to justify agreeing to them...

...Although this could produce a seemingly interminable and exasperating situation, the West can afford to wait...

...Presumably, a Polish invasion would transform Madrid into a forum for sounding the death knell of the Helsinki Final Act, and of detente itself...

...Nevertheless, the USSR delegation pressured unceasingly for the broader territorial definition, going so far as to pointedly suggest to Western representatives that if nato acquiesced, "everything else, even human rights, would fall into place...

...Besides human rights, linkage has provided leverage on a serious security conference component more immediately central to Western concerns...

...Brezhnev had hardly conceded very much, and since the conference is supposed to focus on Europe, including North America would be nothing short of absurd...

...Moreover, it is able to communicate, under the protective circumstances of Madrid, with several East European governments that desire such contact but need the appropriate framework...

...Earlier, only the United States had sounded the alarm on the threat posed by the Soviet occupation of Kabul...

...The importance of a conference exclusively devoted to human rights is self-evident, accounting for the Kremlin's tactics of stubborn resistance...

...The Kremlin has been reluctant to commit itself openly...