Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990 TAG: 9006130078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
Western diplomats said Gorbachev appeared to be showing more flexibility on the German issue only days after he had again expressed Soviet opposition to NATO membership for a new Germany during the visit of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Gorbachev also told the Supreme Soviet legislature in his hourlong speech, broadcast live on Soviet television, that "huge results" were achieved in arms control at his May 30-June 3 summit in Washington with President Bush.
The address gave Gorbachev the opportunity to highlight his area of greatest success, foreign policy, as his domestic policy - plagued by economic woes, ethnic strife and secessionist strains - draws increasing fire at home. Gorbachev, smiling often and speaking calmly, told the legislators his warm reception in the United States and the signing of a trade agreement showed U.S. faith in his domestic reform program.
He also reported on his talks with Bush on a united Germany joining the North Atlantic Treat Organization. West Germany now belongs to the Western military alliance and East Germany to the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.
Gorbachev said, "Our position is thus: We could agree to the joining, if you accept associative participation, the principle of blocs coming together in conjunction with the unification of Germany in the process of which mutual obligations are not changed, neither from the side of West or East Germany, and if simultaneously the blocs are reformed in natural connection with Vienna and the all-European process."
He did not spell out what associate membership for Germany would comprise. Vienna, Austria, is the venue for arms-reduction talks and the Europewide Conference on Security and Cooperation aimed at reducing tensions.
by CNB