NATO Invites Gorbachev : Allies Agree to Proposal From Bush

President Bush won approval from other Western leaders today for a surprise proposal to invite Mikhail S. Gorbachev to NATO in a goodwill gesture toward the Soviet Union. Bush also secured an endorsement by NATO foreign ministers of a policy declaration that nuclear weapons would be used in Europe only as a last resort.

Bush said that not only Gorbachev, but leaders of the other Warsaw Pact nations of Eastern Europe also should be invited to NATO. All of the invitations are for some future date, not the two-day NATO summit that began today.

The President made his unexpected proposal to invite Gorbachev as NATO began debating steps to reshape the Western alliance as a result of the rapidly diminishing military threat from the East. French presidential spokesman Hubert Vedrine reported later that the allies had endorsed Bush’s idea.

Vedrine said NATO will invite Gorbachev “to come and speak in the name of the Soviet Union” before the North Atlantic Council in Brussels. The council is the principal body of NATO and meets at various levels: ambassadors, foreign ministers, or on occasion, heads of state or government. It was not clear who would constitute Gorbachev’s audience.

Not long ago, it would have been unthinkable for a Soviet leader to be invited to address the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was forged in 1949 to counter potential military aggression from the East. Now, however, Western leaders speak of the Soviet Union and East European nations more as friends than foes.

A British spokesman said Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was cool toward the idea of declaring nuclear weapons as arms of last resort.

But British officials said NATO foreign ministers had agreed at a separate four-hour meeting to insert the phrase into the summit’s closing statement on Friday. Approval by NATO leaders seemed virtually certain.

Diplomatic sources said the proposal was intended to demonstrate that NATO is changing to keep pace with rapid developments in East Europe and the Soviet Union. The Warsaw Pact has virtually collapsed since the Soviets’ former military allies began ousting their long-dominant Communist governments last year.

Acknowledging that she was in danger of being called “Cold War warrior,” Thatcher cited detailed statistics about Soviet arms production and urged NATO to keep up its guard while reaching out to Moscow and East Europe.

Along with a series of Bush proposals to revamp NATO for a less militaristic future, the summit participants are expected to debate whether Western nations should rush cash assistance to Moscow to help bail out the Soviet Union’s crumbling economy. On Wednesday, Bush seemed to ease his conditions for Western aid.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl told NATO leaders they should make a joint declaration with Warsaw Pact countries “that we no longer regard one another as adversaries.”

Said Kohl: “Confrontation and the Cold War belong to the past.”

But French President Francois Mitterrand said he opposes Kohl’s call for a joint nonaggression declaration, as does the United States. One Canadian official said the idea is “losing speed.”