Initiatives by the United States and the Soviet Union aimed at resumption of strategic arms talks are encouraging to a world deeply concerned by the buildup of nuclear arsenals. President Reagan’s recent proposal for negotiations to reduce intercontinental warhead stocks by a third have brought significant responses from two directions: – President Leonid I. Brezhnev announced in a speech that the Soviet Union is prepared to begin nuclear arms talks. – And foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Alliance have endorsed the Reagan approach in behalf of NATO allies. Arrangements still are to be worked out, of course. Reagan suggested talks in Geneva, to begin in late June. Brezhnev mentioned no date. The Soviet leader called the U.S. offer a “step in the right direction” but let it be known there are problems in the path of agreements to be negotiated. This is to be expected in such a complex and farreaching matter and in view of past disagreements, inc uding the SALT II treaty which the U.S. did not ratify. One immediate issue is Russia’s proposal for a freeze on modernization and deployment of strategic nuclear weapons as soon as talks begin. When the USSR first made the suggestion in March. Reagan demurred on grounds that la freeze would permit the Soviet Union to preserve a definite lead, including its deployment of new SS-20 missiles in Europe. In his speech, Brezhnev also rejected U.S. calls for immediate arms cuts, signalling another difference in philosophy that must be ironed out. Even so. the prospect of U.S. and Russian leaders getting together to talk about cooling a world threat of transcendent urgency is something longawaited. Intense, realistic negotiations are long overdue. The fact is. the two principal nuclear powers have had no substantial strategic arms talks since June of 1979, nearly three years. With a subject of such magnitude, it is important that the proposed talks be continuing and sustained not mere stories at the council table, to be recessed after a few discussions. Sen. Charles Mathias, RMd. expressed this idea during nuclear arms control discussions in Congress in March. “What we must do, and do urgently,” Mathias said, “is return to the negotiating table, sit down with the representatives of the Soviet Union. and stay there for as long as it takes us to hammer out agreements on strategic arms control and the elimination of nuclear weapons. Given failures of the past, the subsequent nuclear arms buildup. and difficult barriers to be hurdled, there should not be undue optimism at this point. Yet there are hopeful signs. And if the U.S.Soviet talks come off as presently discussed, it seems reasonable that eventually other nations with nuclear capability should become parties to the negotiations. But that’s a step down the road. The urgent thing now is for the two big powers to join their efforts in solving what has become a monumental problem for mankind. World peace and security depend upon their success.