Gorbachev Eases NATO Stand : Germany Could Join as Associate

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev today eased his stand and said he would agree to a unified Germany joining NATO as an “associate member.”

Gorbachev did not elaborate on what he meant by associated membership but it apparently would entail something less than full participation in NATO.

In a report to the Supreme Soviet on his recent Washington summit, Gorbachev said he told President Bush there were alternatives, including dual membership of the united Germany in both NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.

He said the Soviet Union would agree to letting the combined Germany join NATO as an associate member if the Western alliance reformed.

“We would agree to the entry of Germany into NATO providing the United States accepted associated membership (for Germany) and the principle of rapprochement of the military blocs,” Gorbachev said.

But Bush said in Washington that he was determined that the combined East and West Germany become a full member of NATO.

“That matter was discussed here. . . . And our position is well-known to him, which is that a unified Germany should be in NATO with no conditions,” Bush said at the beginning of a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House when asked if he were aware of Gorbachev’s proposal.

“But the more talking we do the more convinced I am that they will see that what we’re proposing is most stabilizing and is best for the Soviet Union as well as Western and Eastern Europe,” Bush added. “So we’ll keep on trying. But these ideas--let them float them out there and we’ll listen and we’ll discuss them without rancor.”

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl dismissed the idea, telling reporters in Bonn: “This is a proposal we do not consider realistic. We reject it.”

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Parliament in London: “I doubt very much whether one country can be a member of two different pacts.”

In Brussels, a NATO spokesman also rejected Gorbachev’s suggestions. “Some of his thoughts are interesting and we will study the speech. However, among other problems, the ideas of associated membership of a united Germany in both alliances, or of dual membership, do not seem promising to pursue,” the spokesman said.

“A united Germany must have the right, recognized in the Helsinki Final Act, to choose to be party to a treaty of alliance, without the establishment of constraints on its sovereignty,” he said.

Despite the rejection, Gorbachev’s remarks were seen as something of a breakthrough.

Previously, Gorbachev and other Soviet leaders had flatly rejected the prospect of a unified Germany in NATO, proposing the country instead be neutral or a member of both alliances. Moscow insists that full NATO membership for a united Germany would be a destabilizing force in Europe.

“We fully understand the desire of Germans to live in a single state,” Gorbachev said.

“It is clear that there is no avoiding a transition period,” he said. “Germany might declare that during this transition period it shall abide by commitments inherited from (West Germany) and (East Germany).”