GENEVA -- The United States and Russia signed an agreement today for establishment of a "hot line" communications link between Washington and Moscow to reduce the risk of war by accident.
The historic accord was signed by U.S. Ambassador Charles Stelle and Soviet Ambassador Semyon K. Tsarapkin, their nations' chief representatives at the 17-nation disarmament conference.
The arrangement calls for a "hot line" teleprinter link which will permit President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to confer immediately at any time.
Stelle and Tsarapkin affixed their signatures to the agreement at the European headquarters of the United Nations, climaxing about two months of secret American-Soviet negotiations.
It was the first concrete accomplishment of the disarmament conference, which has been paralyzed since it began in March, 1962, by sharply-opposed western and Communist aims.
The "hot line" will connect the Kremlin with the Pentagon and probably the White House by way of Helsinki, Stockholm and London.
Messages between Mr. Kennedy and Khrushchev will be simultaneously translated and coded under procedures worked out by technical experts from both sides.
The agreement came after a spokesman explained that certain small clarifications requested by Russia yesterday were approved by Washington during the night.
