GERMAN AGREEMENT REACHED

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33068, 8 November 1972, Page 17

GERMAN AGREEMENT REACHED

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) BONN, November 7. The West German Cabinet will meet today to consider the text of the agreement reached last night between East and West German negotiators to normalise relations between the two German States.

The historic document, formally acknowledging the post-war division of Germany, was also being presented today to the East German Government and it was regarded as virtually certain that both would approve it in time for it to be initialled in Bonn later this tveek.

A West German Government spokesman said yesterday that the text of the treaty would not be published until after the initialling, and the treaty would be formally signed only after the November 19 West German General Elections.

It will then have to be ratified by the new Bonn Parliament Both the West German Left-liberal Government of Chancellor Willy Brandt and the Christian Democratic Opposition refrained from comment on the agreement until after this morning’s Cabinet meeting, but the East German Communist Party leader, Mr Erich Honecker was quick to welcome it. In a toast at an East Berlin reception marking the fifty-fifth anniversary of the Soviet revolution, he said that the negotiations had reached a successful conclusion. The treaty, on which agreement was reached in East Berlin by the West German State Secretary (Mr Egon Bahr) and his East German opposite number, Dr Michael Kohl, will, when approved by the two Governments, entail mutual diplomatic recognition, entry of the two German States into the United Nations, and increased contacts in various fields.

Achieved after protracted negotiations in Bonn and in East Berlin, last night’s agreement comes after 23 years of hostility and suspicion.

The treaty will smooth the way for a European security conference, a long-sought aim of Soviet foreign policy requiring the presence of both German States, and bring international recognition to East Germany. Mr Brandt and his Social Democratic Party are likely

to point to it during the remaining 12 days of the General Election campaign. Talking to reporters late last night in East Berlin, both State Secretaries expressed confidence their text would be initialled this week in the two capitals. Mr Bahr said that they had achieved a neighbourly relationship between the two Germanies which could lead the way to co-operation.

Dr Kohl commented that both sides had shown understanding of the other’s point of view and praised West Germany’s “realism.” Mr Bahr said that they were tired after nearly two years of negotiations, but greatly satisfied that they had fulfilled their task. Asked what would happen if a newly-elected West German Government demanded further negotiations, Dr Kohl said: “I think I would laugh.” Mr Bahr said that they should not discuss hypotheses.

Both in obvious good humour, the two men said they would be happy not to have to negotiate any more. Asked by a British journalist whether the treaty would mean that the 11-year-old Berlin Wall would come down, Mr Bahr replied he thought no-one in the world could bring it down. “But I think the main point is that despite the fact of the Wall, we could agree that people living on both sides of the Wall can come together,” he added.