Reagan Says He Won’t Go to Moscow if Gorbachev Calls Off ’86 Visit to U.S.

WASHINGTON —  President Reagan said today that he will refuse to go to Moscow in 1987 if he and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev cannot work out an acceptable date for a meeting in the United States later this year.

“I’ve got news for them,” Reagan told reporters attending a White House breakfast meeting. If Gorbachev refuses to go along with a U.S. timetable for this year, Reagan said, “there won’t be any ’87 summit in Moscow.”

Reagan told reporters that he has not received a formal reply to his invitation to Gorbachev for a summit meeting in Washington in June or July.

“We have no word,” Reagan said. “We have informal signals from a member of their government that September would be better.”

‘Sticking to the Summer’

“We’ve explained we can’t have it in September” because that would fall too close to congressional elections in November, Reagan said. “I’m still sticking to the summer.”

Reagan answered questions on subjects ranging from the Philippines to domestic issues in the wide-ranging breakfast interview with 50 newspaper reporters.

Last November in Geneva, Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to hold regular summit meetings, the first to be held in Washington in the spring.

Last week, Gorbachev, in addressing the 27th Communist Party Congress, appeared to rule out a summit meeting this year unless there is progress in the nuclear arms negotiations. He said there was no reason to hold “empty talks,” but White House officials said they have heard through diplomatic channels that the issue has not been decided in the Kremlin.

Aid for Nicaraguan Rebels

On other topics, Reagan discussed his campaign to win congressional approval of $100 million in aid for rebels trying to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua.

Asked if he equated opposition to his request with support for the Sandinista government, Reagan said, “It’s hard not to.”

He said he agreed with the views of Patrick J. Buchanan, White House director of communications, who wrote today for the Washington Post’s opinion page that the Democratic Party “has now become, with Moscow, co-guarantor of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Central America” by cutting out military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels.

The Brezhnev Doctrine permits the Soviets to intervene in the internal affairs of Communist Bloc states.

Church Groups ‘Misguided’

Reagan said some church groups that oppose his aid request are “misguided.”

On another subject, Reagan said he has no plans to see the new president of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino, during his trip this spring to Asia.

Reagan was also questioned about the recommendation of a presidential commission on organized crime, which proposed a broad national program to test workers for drug use.