The World : Moscow-Bonn ‘Ice Broken’

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev said that talks with visiting West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl have “broken the ice” between their two countries. Relations had been strained by deployment of Pershing 2 missiles in West Germany and by Kohl’s 1986 remark comparing Gorbachev to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. The missiles are being removed under a U.S.-Soviet arms agreement. But the Soviet news agency Tass quoted Gorbachev as saying that improved bilateral ties will not change Soviet determination to maintain the present status of East Germany and the East-West division of Berlin. German reunification is a long-term West German goal that Kohl mentioned in a speech at a Kremlin dinner on the first day of his four-day visit.