Talks Improve Climate for Unification, Germans Say

Leaders of the two Germanys said Sunday that the superpower summit has improved conditions for the unification of their countries and praised U.S. readiness to expand trade with the Soviets.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said the summit between President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev “has further improved the international conditions for the unity process between the Germanys.”

His foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere also said they see the summit as improving conditions for German unity and disarmament.

“The resolution of the uttermost aspects of German unity requires new and far-reaching progress in the CSCE-process, in disarmament, and in the overall cooperation between West and East, especially in the area of economics,” Kohl said in a statement.

The CSCE, or 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, deals with military security, economic cooperation and human rights.

Kohl said, however, that progress in reducing strategic nuclear weapons, the beginning of a worldwide ban on chemical weapons and the ending of nuclear testing were equally important.

In an interview with West German government TV, Genscher called the summit “a great success . . . that will also have positive results on the developments in Europe.

De Maiziere, also interviewed by West German TV, said the summit showed the superpowers were rethinking their approach to security.

“The deciding message that I think I heard is that in the area of stabilizing security, they are having new and very different ideas,” De Maiziere said of Bush and Gorbachev.