
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990                   TAG: 9005180281
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BUSH, KOHL STRESS GERMANY-NATO VOW

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl reassured President Bush Thursday that a unified Germany intends to be a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Bush replied that he will tell Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev the new German state must be free to choose its own security alliances.

Their agreement that Germany must remain in NATO came at a White House meeting where they discussed the positions Bush will take at his May 30-June 4 summit with Gorbachev here. At a joint appearance and at Kohl's later news conference, they stressed that while the Soviet Union must have reasonable assurances for its security, German NATO membership is not negotiable.

This position is counter to Soviet demands that a unified Germany must be neutral. In what could be a warning that arguments about NATO could become a major obstacle to uniting West and East Germany, Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov announced in Moscow Thursday that withdrawals of Soviet troops from East Germany have halted, and their resumption will depend in part on resolution of the German question.

It was not immediately clear whether Gerasimov was backpedaling from Gorbachev's pledge before the U.N. General Assembly on Dec. 7, 1988, to cut 500,000 men unilaterally from the Soviet armed forces.

Gerasimov said the Soviet Union already had brought two tank divisions and other units home from East Germany, where it has had 380,000 troops stationed. He did not specify how many soldiers were involved in the pullback, but Reuters news agency quoted him as saying that when this move is counted alongside other Soviet withdrawals from Eastern Europe, "we will overfulfill our original initiative" for that region.

U.S. officials said they did not have a report on Gerasimov's statement and could not say whether the Soviet move was intended to pressure West Germany and its allies in the unification negotiations. They added that Secretary of State James Baker, in Moscow to discuss summit arrangements with Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, should learn there whether the Soviet withdrawal slowdown is what one official called "playing hardball" over Germany's NATO status.

Reports of Gerasimov's statement had not reached here when Bush and Kohl spoke to reporters. But they were unequivocal on the NATO question.

Kohl said: "We do not want a future Germany to have diminished sovereignty; we do not want any singularization, neutralization or demilitarization of Germany. We do not want a united Germany to be non-aligned, to drift between the two camps. This means that a united Germany will make use of its right to belong to an alliance. This is and always will be the North Atlantic Alliance."

by CNB