Bush Repeats Support for Gorbachev : Foreign policy: But he says it would be ‘inappropriate’ to comment on the approval of greater powers.

President Bush avoided comment Tuesday on the broad powers granted the Soviet president, but he reiterated U.S. support for the reform programs that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev warned would fail unless he won the strong new authority.

Soviet experts in and out of government said Gorbachev’s new strength will be a positive development for the United States if it helps him push through his domestic reforms, which the United States endorses. But they said it will have only marginal impact, if any, on direct U.S.-Soviet relations.

“I stay out of the internal affairs and deliberations of the Soviet Union,” Bush told a news conference. “They are going through a process of reform, which we support in broad terms,” he said, and it would be “very inappropriate” to comment on the progress of democratization as it moves forward.

The President also noted that he has “a reasonably good relationship (with Gorbachev), a respectful one, and I’m going to continue to work with him.”

But the impact of the change in Gorbachev’s authority on international affairs is expected to be modest to negligible, according to Michael Mandelbaum, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“There’s not much opposition to Gorbachev’s foreign policies now in the Politburo,” he said “so you can’t expect he’ll be showing greater capacity for signing sweeping new arms control agreements, for example. Maybe a stronger Gorbachev can swallow more on Germany--a Soviet retreat while the United States remains there (with a troop presence)--but that’s a reach,” he added.

A U.S. official took much the same view, although he warned that Gorbachev’s sweeping new powers go “against the grain of democracy” even though they are “profoundly necessary to push the reform process.”

“Gorbachev has had a free rein on foreign policy,” he added, “so the new situation will not make much difference” in U.S.-Soviet relations.

At the news conference, Bush also defended his Administration’s reluctance to recognize a new government in Lithuania, despite the weekend declaration of independence by the legislature in Vilnius. Asked if the United States still uses the Cold War phrase captive nation to describe Lithuania, Bush said, “We might not use that word (any more), but we never have regarded Lithuania as incorporated into the Soviet Union.” Recognition of Lithuanian independence, therefore, is not required, he indicated.

“In terms of recognition (of the government in Vilnius), there is a standard of control of one’s territory that I’ve been advised should guide this,” Bush added. International law specifies that a new government, beyond declaring itself independent, must show that it runs a country in order to qualify for recognition as independent, authorities have said.

Bush welcomed the “free expression” allowed Lithuanians in their vote and said the Lithuanians and Soviets should now work out the political, economic and other terms of their separation.

On Far Eastern foreign policy issues, the President:

Deflected a question about whether Japanese officials in recent visits had made significant trade concessions, as Tokyo critics have charged. Talks with Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu and former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who is believed to be highly influential in the government, were “very constructive,” he said. The two left with “a far better understanding of the problems we face,” he added, and he learned much about Japanese concerns.

Defended his controversial diplomatic overtures to China after the Beijing massacre last June. He might have “done that one differently” if he had followed public opinion, Bush said, but “that’s not the way I run this Administration.”