Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990 TAG: 9005180412
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
President Mikhail Gorbachev met with Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene to discuss possible compromises over the republic's bid for freedom from Soviet rule.
Although the two did not appear to reach any immediate solution, the meeting got the United States off a tricky political hook. The United States indicated that the cloud over the Washington summit had been dispelled.
The start of a dialogue also would allow President Bush to recommend giving the Soviet Union vital economic help by granting it the status of "most favored nation" (MFN), which would allow its products to be imported to the United States with lower tariffs. The Soviet Union is so desperate for hard currency at present that it has stopped paying many of its import bills.
The breakthrough in the Baltic crisis came on the second day of Secretary of State James Baker's visit here to work with Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze on preparations for the May 30 to June 3 summit. Baker had hinted Wednesday that if the Soviet leadership did not begin a dialogue with Lithuania, the meeting might be in trouble.
The U.S. position on the Lithuanian crisis has been that it must be resolved through dialogue.
"This is a big step forward," Prunskiene said after meeting with Gorbachev and Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov for an hour and 40 minutes. She gave them documents containing compromise proposals that the Lithuanian parliament had discussed privately Wednesday after hearing her warnings that a failure to bend would cost Lithuania Western nations' support.
Prunskiene, who recently conferred with Bush and other Western leaders, said the suggested compromises in no way included repealing or suspending her republic's March 11 declaration of independence. Rather they involved suspending laws passed afterward that helped complete Lithuania's divorce from the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev appeared to reject Prunskiene's compromises. The government news agency TASS said the Lithuanians' offer did not go far enough. "Analysis of the documents has shown that they envisage certain movements toward normalizing the situation. Nonetheless, they do not lift the main problem. They have failed to repeal the `Act on the Restoration of the Lithuanian State'."
Despite this apparent rejection, the compromises offered concerned the laws which caused Gorbachev to slap a partial economic blockade on Lithuania last month.
Although Gorbachev denounced the declaration of independence soon after its passage, he did nothing to punish Lithuania until the laws implementing that freedom were approved.
Gorbachev then ordered some vital supplies to the republic be cut off or reduced, including oil and natural gas. Some Lithuanian industry has had to shut down because of the lack of fuel.
Gorbachev has told all three Baltic republics they may leave the Soviet Union, but only by following a newly passed constitutional amendment on secession. The law says two-thirds of the republic's citizens must vote for independence.
Although neither Latvia nor Estonia have gone as far as Lithuania in their moves toward freedom, their parliaments also have declared independence without a referendum.
Prunskiene said her talks with the Soviet leaders at first were rocky, but improved as the meeting progressed. President Vytautas Landsbergis of Lithuania will present any compromise agreements to the full Lithuanian parliament Saturday for a vote, she added.
Prunskiene was to meet Baker today.
Baker and Shevardnadze on Thursday got down to detail work on the arms control agreements they are trying to ready for the summit. The Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman, Gennady Gerasimov, said the two sides were making progress.
by CNB