Paris, Bonn Call for Western Aid to Help Soviet Economy

The leaders of France and West Germany, suggesting that time is short, appealed jointly Friday for speedy organization of a large-scale Western aid program to help President Mikhail S. Gorbachev rescue the Soviet economy.

The call from President Francois Mitterrand of France and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, at a summit conference beside the Rhine, prepared the way for the two leaders’ efforts to win Europe-wide backing for a Soviet aid package at a European Community summit conference scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Dublin.

Beyond their European partners, however, Kohl and Mitterrand also aimed their suggestion at the United States and Japan, whose political and financial cooperation would be vital to any Western effort to bolster Gorbachev’s reforms in Moscow.

The Franco-German appeal steered particular attention toward Washington, where the Bush Administration is now faced with a highly visible proposal from two major U.S. allies to join in a campaign for aid to Gorbachev.

Kohl said Thursday that he has urged in letters to President Bush and other leaders of the seven major industrial democracies that they take up the issue at their summit conference next month in Houston. Similarly, Mitterrand said in an interview Tuesday that the West should think about organizing technological and economic aid for the Soviet Union in recognition of Gorbachev’s reform efforts.

Neither Kohl nor Mitterrand appeared convinced by repeated arguments in Washington and London that large-scale economic assistance to the Soviet Union would only be money down the drain until Gorbachev’s restructuring, or perestroika, gets the necessary economic reforms into place.

The French leader, reversing the arguments, said such reforms will be possible only with aid from the West.

Kohl and his foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, have appeared particularly eager in recent weeks to deal with Soviet economic and strategic concerns.

Moscow’s reluctance to see East Germany meld into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has become a major sticking point as East and West Germany move swiftly toward unification, expected to take place by the end of the year.

The government in Bonn announced Friday, for example, that aside from whatever its European and other allies do jointly, West Germany is offering guarantees for up to $3 billion in bank loans to the Soviet Union.

In talks with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, Genscher also has discussed West German financial support for Soviet troops to remain in what is now East Germany during a transition period and additional aid to help resettle those who return to the Soviet Union after unification.