I want unity, says Kohl

Press, 8 July 1983, Page 6

I want unity, says Kohl

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The West German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, said yesterday that he had made it clear to Soviet leaders that he was firmly committed to the reunification of East and West Germany. Speaking at a press conference in Moscow, Dr Kohl said that German unity had been a main point in his two days of meetings with President Yuri Andropov and other Kremlin chiefs.

“I explained that we are aware of the present reality of the division of Germany,” said Dr Kohl. “But what we want is the reunification of our country by any peaceful means.” Dr Kohl was the first West German leader to talk at length in public about reunification while on a visit to Moscow. Past leaders such as his predecessor, Helmut Schmidt, have avoided the subject in the knowledge

that the Soviet Union is highly sensitive about it and totally opposed to the idea of a greater German State being recreated in central Europe. He said that he had responded to Mr Andropov’s concern on the German issue by asking him how he would feel if he were German. “I told Mr Andropov,’ what would you say as a

Soviet patriot if Moscow was divided down the middle — and it is intereting that there was no answer, the question remained in the air,” said Dr Kohl. Germany has been effectively divided since 1949, when the United States, British and French occupation zones were turned into the Federal Republic and the Soviet zone into the German Democratic Republic.