Gromyko new Soviet President

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 1

Gromyko new Soviet President

NZPA-AP Moscow Mr Andrei Gromyko was elected Soviet President last evening at a session of the National Parliament, and Mr Eduard Shevardnadze named to succeed him as Foreign Minister. Mr Gromyko’s unanimous election by the 1500 deputies to the Supreme Soviet, the country’s national Parliament, came after a brief nominating speech by the Soviet Communist Party leader, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr Gorbachev told the Parliament that the partycentral committee had decided, in its meeting on Monday, that Mr Gromyko, aged 75, should be nominated for the post. Mr Gorbachev, who had been widely expected to assume the post himself, said positions had changed since 1977 when Leonid Brezhnev first combined the roles of party leader and head of State. Proposing Mr Gromyko to the Supreme Soviet, Mr Gorbachev described him as an “eminent political activist” and a “man of great experience and knowledge.” The Supreme Soviet approved the appointment by a unanimous show of hands and agreed to release Mr Gromyko from his other duties as Foreign Minister

and a Deputy Prime Minister. Mr Shevardnadze, elevated to full Politburo membership only the previous day, was proposed by the Prime Minister, Mr Nikolai Tikhonov, as Foreign Minister and unanimously approved. In a brief acceptance speech, Mr Gromyko, who has been Foreign Minister for 28 years, said, “I will make every effort to fulfil with honour my duty towards the party and country.” Western analysts were surprised by the decision to appoint Mr Gromyko as President, ending a tradition which Mr Gorbachev had himself espoused when he proposed Konstantin Chernenko for the post in April 1984. But it was seen as an honourable way for Mr Gromyko to move out of the arduous role of Foreign Minister into an elder statesman position with a primarily ceremonial role. Diplomats said Mr Gromyko had apparently played a significant role in Mr Gorbachev’s assumption of the party leadership, using his own authority to propose the younger man in an unusually candid speech to the party’s central committee. Mr Shevardnadze, Page 11