Gorbachev Sees Closer Relations as Summit Ends : Superpowers: Leaders take moderate approaches to the explosive issues of Lithuania and Germany.

President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev ended four days of meetings on a trumpet note of conciliation and cooperation Sunday, resolved to increase the pace of summitry and to conclude a treaty before the year is out cutting conventional arms in Europe.

And, seemingly determined not just to avoid confrontation but to help each other with mutual problems, Bush and Gorbachev in a joint news conference Sunday took notably moderate approaches to the two most explosive issues now dividing the superpowers--freedom for Lithuania and the future of Germany.

Both leaders emphasized what they described as an increasingly trusting and effective personal relationship.

“The atmosphere and the results of this meeting make it possible for us to speak really of a new phase of cooperation,” Gorbachev said. “I believe that this transition is both the result and a factor for further changes that affect all countries.”

The Soviet president said that his relationship with Bush is rooted in personal impressions he formed of the then-vice president during the Reagan Administration. “Mr. Bush and I met each other a bit earlier, before finding ourselves in this position together,” Gorbachev said. “And during my contacts with him I felt--and it was during my first visit here, in 1987--that this is the kind of person to do business with, to build our relations with.”

For his part, Bush said: “We’ve moved a long, long way from the depths of the Cold War” to achieve a “dramatic” improvement in U.S.-Soviet relations. “The more this reform and openness takes place, the more compatible the relationship becomes,” he said.

On the issue of reducing non-nuclear arms in Europe, Gorbachev said: “We have agreed to make sure that we will complete the Vienna talks this year and sign an agreement on conventional arms at a European summit by the end of this year. . . . Not everything depends on us, but this is our position. We want to achieve that.”

Earlier a stalemate had developed in the negotiations, but on Saturday, U.S. and Soviet officials said in interviews that negotiators had broken the deadlock even though serious unresolved issues remain.

The treaty to slash the level of troops and weapons in Europe is being negotiated in Vienna by representatives of the 16 North Atlantic Treaty Organization members and seven Warsaw Pact nations. While much work remains to be done on the treaty, and those nations--as well as 12 other members of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe--must approve the final document, Gorbachev expressed optimism that the pact will be achieved in 1990.

Seemingly determined not just to avoid confrontation but to help each other with mutual problems, Bush and Gorbachev in their news conference took notably moderate approaches to the two most explosive issues now dividing the superpowers--freedom for Lithuania and the future of Germany.

Bush said that while the United States remains concerned about Soviet sanctions against the break-away republic, the question of trade concessions for Moscow--a politically critical issue for Gorbachev--is formally linked only to liberalization of Soviet emigration policy, not to Lithuanian independence.

Conservatives had pressed the Administration to take a tough line on the issue with Gorbachev at the summit.

But on Sunday, when a reporter pointed out that six weeks ago Bush had suggested that his patience with the Soviets’ handling of Lithuania was nearing an end, the President said he did not recall putting it that way and added that he and Gorbachev had had “some good discussions on the issue.”

Gorbachev pledged to resolve the Lithuanian issue. “We are going to do it ourselves,” he declared. “With full responsibility, I wish to declare here (and) now for all of you to know that we are anxious to see this issue resolved in such a way as everybody’s interests would be taken into account and within the constitution’s framework.”

The Soviet constitution guarantees the right of secession but only after a lengthy legal process.

If Bush sidestepped confrontation on trade and Lithuania, Gorbachev returned the favor on a reunified Germany. Without minimizing Soviet concern about a resurgent Germany, he refrained from repeating the relatively strident statements he has sometimes made on the question of German membership in NATO.

He expressed willingness to work toward a “mutually acceptable solution” to the issue.

Further, Bush, who insists that a united Germany should be in NATO, said Gorbachev is “in full agreement” with him that the issue is a matter for the Germans themselves to decide under the Helsinki Final Act negotiated in 1975.

The Helsinki Final Act declared that Europe’s postwar borders are permanent, called for more East-West cooperation on security and committed each signatory nation to guaranteeing a broad range of human rights.

Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Bush and his advisers viewed Gorbachev’s statement that Germany could determine to which alliance it would belong as a significant development. However, hearing such a commitment from the Soviet leader and seeing it translated into action, they said, are two different things.

“We’re hopeful this reflects some movement in the Soviet position,” a senior Administration official said. “But we’ll have to wait to see.”

At Sunday’s press conference, Gorbachev suggested that a transition period would be necessary before a united Germany gains full independence. And he offered a low-key reminder that if Moscow’s concerns are ignored, it may reassess its commitment to arms reductions in Europe.

It was in the second closed-door meeting between Bush and Gorbachev on Thursday afternoon, during a discussion of a united Germany’s role in Europe, that the suggestion arose to deal with the issue in terms of the Helsinki Final Act, the official said.

Bush brought up the subject, saying that the 35-nation Helsinki agreement commits the signatories, which include the United States and the Soviet Union, to a declaration that nations could choose their own alliance memberships. Gorbachev, the Administration official said, told Bush that he agreed with that statement.

But while officials took heart in this approach, they said that a more important indication of Gorbachev’s position will be the approach the Soviets take in the so-called two-plus-four talks on German unification by the major World War II Allies--the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France, along with East and West Germany.

“We’ll have to see if the Soviet position is evolving,” the official said.

The Administration’s reading of Gorbachev’s apparent acceptance of this view prompted what one official described as “a big debate” among Bush’s advisers during the summit. In the end, they decided that “the important thing here is (that) this is the first time we’ve heard it from Gorbachev.”

Gorbachev, who declared the Cold War over at the end of their first superpower summit in Malta last December, called the Washington summit “an event of enormous importance, both for our bilateral relations and in the context of world politics.”

Bush said that “the constructive spirit of these days, the spirit of responsibility in which we discussed all questions, has made our success possible, and that’s really important because that has a stabilizing effect on the entire international situation. . . .”

In that optimistic spirit, the two leaders disclosed at the wrap-up press conference that they have agreed to schedule summits on a regular, perhaps annual, basis.

While flying aboard the Marine One helicopter to Camp David, Md., for their Saturday meetings, the two men looked down at the Virginia suburbs just beyond the nation’s capital. Bush talked to Gorbachev about private ownership of homes, bank loans “and how the system works,” said Marlin Fitzwater, the White House press secretary.

Later, at a dinner at Laurel Lodge, the dining hall at Camp David, “Gorbachev got quite emotional” in delivering a toast to Bush, Fitzwater said.

The Soviet president earlier in the day tried his hand at horseshoes, a sport he was said to have played in the Soviet Union, and scored a ringer on his first toss. Later the horseshoe was mounted and was presented to him at the dinner.

Gorbachev responded, according to Fitzwater, by saying: “I hope this means good luck on your house. I hope it brings good luck to your people and good luck to my people.”

“They had a very good interaction,” Fitzwater said. “The two guys are very much alike. When they debate across a table they see a mirror image,” he said, describing them both as “very aggressive” in their styles of discussion, ready to challenge each other about the basis of their arguments.

“They even have a similar sense of humor,” Fitzwater said. “They make fun of things. They tease each other.”

In a small concluding sign of their closer tactical relationship, when Gorbachev finished his lengthy answer on Lithuania, he held up his arm and--like a press conference veteran--looked at his watch to indicate the press conference had lasted the scheduled hour.

Gorbachev then glanced at Bush. The President picked up the cue instantly and ended the session. Turning to Gorbachev, Bush said, “Well done, well done.”

From Washington, Gorbachev flew to Minneapolis, where he appealed, as he had several times over the past few days, for global support of his embattled internal reform programs.

He sketched his view of the alternatives for an audience of Minneapolis business leaders: “Does America want to see a Soviet Union that lacks confidence, that is unstable, that is in turmoil,” he asked, or “one full of life, working with the entire global civilization, integrated into that civilization.”

The agreements that Bush struck with Gorbachev during the summit were not the final word. The trade agreement, in particular, must go before Congress, where there is significant resistance to lowering tariffs while the Soviet Union continues its embargo of Lithuania.

Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told NBC News that congressional sentiment against Bush’s negotiating strategy “has been stirred up even more with this decision by President Bush to unlink or de-link the trade agreement from the Lithuanian situation.”

“The question is, is Congress going to vote for the trade agreement without Lithuania?” he said, noting that the terms agreed to by Bush and Gorbachev are executive agreements, not treaties, and so would require only a majority vote in both houses of Congress.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Gorbachev appeared to have “improvised a good bit” in his closing remarks.

More on the Summit

MEETING THE PRESS--A Russian reporter asks Gorbachev a zinger at a first-ever White House news conference pairing the two superpower presidents. A10

MERCY MISSION--Soviet aircraft will bring U.S. food to Ethiopia in a joint gesture of superpower commitment to the Third World. A11

SEEING THE LIGHT--Gorbachev hints he is coming to accept that German membership in NATO is inevitable. A12

SEPARATE ISSUES--Bush dodged a diplomatic bullet by keeping trade ties separate from Gorbachev’s actions in the restive Soviet republics. A13