Shevardnadze Resigns : Departure Stirs Concern Around Globe

World leaders today praised Eduard A. Shevardnadze for helping end the Cold War and expressed concern about the future of the Soviet Union now that Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s trusted aide has resigned.

From Bonn to Tokyo, from Washington to Copenhagen, the Soviet foreign minister set off international alarms today by telling his nation’s Parliament that hard-liners were pushing Gorbachev toward dictatorship.

Germany, fearing that failure of the Soviet president’s reforms could endanger East European stability, was especially concerned.

“We can only hope that the reforms are carried out. They are good for the Soviet Union and they are good for the relationship between our people and for developments in Europe,” German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said.

Kohl, who has a close relationship with Gorbachev, feels indebted to Gorbachev for freeing Eastern Europe and making German unity possible.

The foreign ministers of Germany and France urgently appealed for an international effort to bolster Gorbachev’s reform program with financial aid.

“This appeal is more urgent than ever before,” said Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Germany’s foreign minister and a close friend of Shevardnadze.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who had developed a close working relationship with Shevardnadze, was less pessimistic.

Baker, who called the outgoing minister his friend, said the abrupt resignation does not mean a change in Soviet foreign policy.

Baker said he was pleased to have Gorbachev’s assurance that foreign policy, which has brought recent progress toward peace and disarmament, would continue on course. He said he would not characterize the resignation as a sign that Gorbachev’s reforms are coming unraveled.

“In my experience, minister Shevardnadze has always worked as a professional who has served his country’s interest,” Baker said. Shevardnadze was a driving force in the Kremlin’s “new thinking” abroad and democratization at home, he added.

Roland Dumas, the French foreign minister, said he hoped Shevardnadze’s “cry of alarm” would be heard.