Hopes High for Accords During Kohl’s Trip to Moscow

Chancellor Helmut Kohl, accompanied by a large entourage, will set out Monday on a long-awaited trip to Moscow amid a heady atmosphere of hope for new accords between West Germany and the Soviet Union.

The four-day visit will be watched closely by West Germany’s allies, some of whom harbor concerns that the Germans may be too accommodating to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“The allies are always a little worried that the Germans might stray off the reservation,” one diplomatic observer here said, asking not to be quoted by name. “They know that German reunification is ultimately in the hands of Moscow, not East Berlin.”

The most enthusiastic member of the Kohl party, which includes five Cabinet ministers, is Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher. He played a large role in patching up relations between Bonn and Moscow two years ago after Kohl, in a magazine interview, likened Gorbachev to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

Genscher said Friday that Moscow “has begun to throw overboard the ballast of a foreign policy based on confrontation and high levels of armament.” West Germany is well placed to construct a “bridge of trust” between East and West, he added.

Because of the bitterness engendered by the Goebbels remark, Kohl has been near the end of the line of Western leaders invited to Moscow. As a result, he will be doing some catching up.

West German sources said the Germans will sign half a dozen agreements providing for cultural exchanges and cooperation in the fields of environmental protection, nuclear and maritime safety, agriculture and space.

Officials of the Deutsche Bank will be on hand to offer $1.7 billion in credits to finance the modernization of Soviet consumer goods industries. Officials and businessmen are expected to conclude about 30 bilateral trade deals.

Among other things, Kohl will seek easier access to the ethnic Germans who have been living in the Soviet Union for two centuries.

Eagerness Questioned

Genscher, apparently aware that some Western officials fear that the Germans may be too eager to embrace the Soviets, said Friday:

“Progress in bilateral relations will not only be to the benefit of further improvement of cooperation all over Europe but also to the benefit of East-West relations. The far-reaching projects to restructure and modernize the Soviet economy offer many opportunities for (West Germany) as the most important Soviet trade partner.”

Hans-Jochen Vogel, chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Party, described the visit as long overdue and added, “If the trip is to become a cornerstone in our relations with the Soviet Union, as Chancellor Kohl and his spokesmen have always said, then something must be set in motion in Moscow concerning the great questions of peace and disarmament policy.”

Kohl’s advisers have said that arms reduction will be discussed and that the discussions will concentrate on conventional weapons. However, they declined to say whether they will take up the controversial question of the modernization of short-range nuclear weapons, privately supported by Kohl. The modernization has been approved by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization but is opposed by Moscow and by a large segment of the West German electorate.

If the meetings in Moscow go well, Gorbachev is expected to accept an invitation to visit West Germany next year, thereby opening what Kohl calls “a new chapter” in relations between the two countries.