Shevardnadze Pays Surprise Courtesy Call on Waldheim

VIENNA — Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze paid a surprise courtesy call on controversial Austrian President Kurt Waldheim on the eve of today’s European security conference.

Shevardnadze met with Waldheim for 45 minutes Monday night and “relayed greetings from General Secretary Mikhail S. Gorbachev,” Austrian officials said.

It was the first such visit by a high-ranking foreigner since Waldheim was elected president June 8.

U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz, due in Vienna on Wednesday for the security conference, made it known that he did not want to see Waldheim, who faces allegations about a Nazi past, and the Austrian had arranged to keep a low profile during the conference. (Story on Page 20).