AFTER ERFURT Bonn-Moscow Talks To Continue Slowly

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32253, 23 March 1970, Page 17

AFTER ERFURT Bonn-Moscow Talks To Continue Slowly

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MOSCOW, March 22. West German-Soviet talks on a bilateral non-aggression treaty are to continue, but with a new round of preliminary discussions rather than the more formal negotiations Germany had expected.

West German State Secretary (Mr Egon Bahr), who has been conducting the preliminary soundings in Moscow, told reporters, after a three-hour session with the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko) last night, that it had been agreed to continue the present phase of discussions in May.

The West German envoy, who has had a total of 33 hours discussion at the Foreign Ministry since the beginning of February, said after his last session last week that he assumed that only one more meeting would be necessary to close the preliminary dialogue. A Government spokesman also said in Bonn on Friday it was hoped that after the | latest Bahr-Gromyko session | talks might move on to the i next phase. | Mr Bahr gave the first optimistic note in the talks on ( Friday of last week, when he said after a meeting with Mr! Gromyko: “We have got a; good bit forward.” The remark came after] agreement in East Berlin between East and West German negotiators to hold last Thursday’s historic first summit meeting between the East and West German heads of Government. However, observers noted

i that the first substantial, (Soviet reaction to the Erfurt, East Germany, summit meet-; ing, a report in the party Communist Party newspaper “Pravda” treated Mr Brandt’s attitude at the meeting negatively. During the Erfurt meeting] Mr Brandt spelt out his Gov- I ernment’s position that the i unity of the German nation 1 must be preserved and the i existing four-Power responsi- i bility for Berlin remain un- < touched. The Communist East German Prime Minister (Mr : Willi Stoph) restated his li country’s demand for full 11 recognition from Bonn under international law. Mr Brandt said that the I Erfurt meeting had featured i “somewhat” in last night's:’ talks with Mr Gromyko. !

The two German heads of State agreed to meet again in Kassel, West Germany, on Maj 21. It was not immediately known whether Mr Bahr’s next visit to Moscow would occur before or after that date. It was understood that part of the delay before the next preliminary West Ger-man-Soviet soundings would be because of the Easter holijday period, the fact that Mr (Bahr, one of Mr Brandt’s (closest aides, was accompany-’ ; ing the Chancellor on a forthcoming trip to Washington, and the major celebrations next month of the centenary of the birth of Lenin. But observers believed that the prolongation of the preliminary soundings implied that difficulties still remained

Ito be solved which did not (permit formal negotiations on ■a treaty to begin yet. A non-aggression treaty between the two countries would serve to normalise their war-scarred relations. These have been marked in the post-war era by a number of factors, including West Germany’s refusal to recognise East Germany, and with it the cementing of the German division, its refusal to consider the post-war OderNeisse border between Poland and East Germany as final, (and differences over the legal | position of Berlin. Reporting to the Bundestag, (Mr Brandt drew a sober but (basically optimistic balance from his meeting in Erfurt (with Mr Stoph. I “The journey to Erfurt was right, necessary, and useful,” (he said. “I believe it is more possible today than it was the : day before yesterday that i practical results can be (reached that a gradual easing [of the consequences of German division is thinkable—(although far from sure,” the | Chancellor said.

Still Divided | But h made clear that the two German States were still deeply divided on issues of principle. “No-one could expect that we would move any closer in our attitudes, beyond general statements on securing peace and discussion of some practical questions." Mr Brandt was speaking to the packed house only a few hours after he returned overnight to Bonn by special train from a summit meeting which stirred emotions on both sides of the grim frontier dividing Germany. Several hundred people braved the cold midnight air to greet him when his train rolled into Bebra in West Germany, close to the East German frontier. Mr Brandt said that his 13-hour stay in Erfurt, 44 miles inside East Germany, was a great human as well as political experience because it allowed him to meet people living in the Communist States. The Chancellor did not mention specifically the tumultuous welcome he was given by thousands of East Germans in Erfurt. He simply asked the House to understand that he did not want to say any more now about this side of the summit meeting events. Some Hopes The East German leader, Mr Walter Ulbricht, said that the East-West German summit meeting had been useful, but expressed disappointment over the attitude of Chancellor Brandt.

Addressing a rally to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the abortive Right-wing Kapp Putsch in Berlin, Mr Ulbricht said that on key questions Mr Brandt had no independent standpoint. “The standpoint of Mr Brandt was disappointing because he was not prepared yet to talk about equal relations under international law,” Mr Ulbricht was quoted as saying by the East German News Agency, A.D.N. But Mr Ulbricht said that despite all difficulties he was optimistic, indeed convinced, that Mr Brandt and the West German Government would finally see that one could not take the fourth or fifth step before the first.

He was referring to Mr Brandt’s statement in Erfurt that fate had divided Germany and one could not undo it, but at least one could ease human conditions between the two States.