THE MALTA SUMMIT : Excerpts of Gorbachev, Bush Remarks to Media

Here are highlights, arranged by topic, of the joint news conference by President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev after their Malta meeting:

GENERAL REMARKS:

BUSH: I am especially glad we had this meeting. . . . I am convinced that a cooperative U.S.-Soviet relationship can indeed make the future safer and brighter.

Now, with reform under way in the Soviet Union, we stand on the threshold of a brand new era of U.S.-Soviet relations, and it is within our grasp to contribute each in our own way to overcoming the division of Europe and ending the military confrontation there.

GORBACHEV: I share the opinion of President Bush that we are satisfied in general with the results of the meeting.

Good contact has been established. The atmosphere was friendly, direct, open. This enabled us to work well.

I assured the President . . . that the Soviet Union will never begin an offensive war against the United States.

We both noted that the world leaves one epoch of Cold War and enters another epoch.

We’re just at the very beginning of our road--long road--to a long-lasting peaceful period . . . it is time decisively to reject many things created during the Cold War--most of all, force, the arms race, mistrust, psychological and ideological struggle, and all that. All that should be things in the past.

CENTRAL AMERICA

GORBACHEV: We told the President once again that we have ceased arms shipment to Central America. . . . We are in favor of free elections with the participation of the United Nations and other Latin American countries to decide the fate of Nicaragua.

There is a possibility for peace in the interest, above all, of the people of this region, which I believe does not contradict the interests of the United States.

BUSH: I feel that arms are still going into El Salvador. We’ve seen clear evidence of it. . . . I don’t believe that the Sandinistas (of neighboring Nicaragua) have told the truth to our Soviet friends, and why? Because we know for a fact that arms have gone in there.

We have some differences in how we look at this key question. And the best way to have those differences ameliorated is to have certifiably free elections in Nicaragua.

ARMS CONTROL

BUSH: I think the chairman knows that I could not come here and make deals on arms control, and I am disinclined to think it is an area where we will have immediate progress.

We have no agreement at all on that particular issue of naval arms control. . . . But the point is he had an opportunity to let me know how important it is.

So, it is exactly the kind of climate for a meeting that I had envisioned and that he had envisioned. We can sit there and talk about issues on which we have had divisions over the years and try to find ways to narrow them. We did narrow them in some important areas, and there are still some differences that exist. There’s no point in covering that over.

MIDDLE EAST

BUSH: It doesn’t require joint initiatives to solve the Middle East question, but we have found that the Soviet Union is playing a constructive role in Lebanon.

GORBACHEV: We discussed this theme in detail. There is understanding that we must use our opportunities acting independently or in cooperation in order to facilitate the resolution of this drawn-out conflict, which exerts its negative influence on the whole world situation.

I believe we agreed that now . . . a real chance has appeared to make a final step to open the process of resolving the conflict, and we mustn’t miss this chance.

EAST EUROPE REFORMS

GORBACHEV: Nobody can avoid this evolutionary process. . . . These changes are to be welcomed . . . because they are linked to the will of these people . . . to give a more democratic, human face to those societies and to open up to the rest of the world.

BUSH: There is no question that there is dramatic change. Nobody can question it. . . . He (Gorbachev) knows that not only the President but all the people in the United States would like to see this peaceful, democratic evolution continue.

GERMANY

BUSH: I think we have tried to act . . . with caution, not to go demonstrating on top of the Berlin Wall to show how happy we are about the change. We are happy about the change. . . . I don’t think it is the role of the United States to dictate the rapidity of change in any country.

GORBACHEV: The reality is that we have today’s Europe with two German states . . . which are both members of the United Nations and sovereign states. This was the decision of history.