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The treaty regulating the reunification of Germany was signed 30 years ago. Russia accuses former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev of betraying the interests of his country. What concessions did Gorbachev make?
Respected in the West, disliked at home: the political legacy of the last leader of the USSR continues to be criticized in Russia. The reunification of Germany, enshrined in the Two Plus Four Treaty, is one of the main reasons for these criticisms. Gorbachev is accused of asking the German government for very little money and failing to prevent NATO’s eastern expansion.
Gorbachev could at least lay down conditions for the future united Germany’s membership in NATO, writes Russian politician and member of the Upper House of Parliament Alexei Pushkov. Many like him criticize not so much the unification itself as the way Gorbachev acted at the time. In a 2017 interview, President Putin also spoke of Gorbachev’s “mistake.”
How Gorbachev gave the green light to the unification of Germany
The “Two plus four” agreement was signed in Moscow by the foreign ministers of Germany and the GDR, as well as the four victorious countries of World War II, which established their own occupation zones in Germany: the USSR, United United, Great Britain and France. seven pages, ends the 40-year division of Germany.
This agreement specifies borders as well as security issues, including membership of a united Germany to NATO. It was agreed to reduce the army from half a million in former Germany to 370,000 in the future united Germany, as well as to withdraw the Soviet army from the GDR. The negotiations lasted from May to September 1990.
Gorbachev himself initially did not believe in the speedy reunification of Germany and criticized Helmut Kohl’s ten-point plan for which the former German chancellor had outlined how to do it.
However, Moscow’s assessment changed in the early 1990s. The breakthrough was made during a meeting with Helmut Kohl on February 10 of the same year. “We received Gorbachev’s approval of the ‘two plus four’ process and, above all, his approval of the internal aspects of German unity,” Kohl wrote in his diary. He managed to convince Gorbachev that it was not the victorious states but the Germans themselves who should determine your future.
One of the most controversial points is Germany’s future membership in NATO. Moscow initially asked for a neutral status, opposed by the governments of Bonn and Washington. In the end, Gorbachev backed down. The Two Plus Four Treaty stipulates that no NATO troops or nuclear weapons will be deployed in the GDR. Talks have been held on expanding NATO to the east, with Western diplomats signaling that there will be no such thing. However, nothing has been recorded in writing on this subject.
According to Gorbachev’s critics, he should have insisted on the withdrawal of American and British troops and weapons from Germany.
Germany was willing to pay more
The other main accusation against Gorbachev is that Moscow received very little money against his consent. The Soviet Union was going through a serious economic crisis at the time. Bon helps and sends food. In the summer of 1990, Moscow received a loan of five billion German marks.
Shortly before the signing of the “Two plus four”, economic aid was negotiated again. Helmut Kohl offers to pay 10 billion German marks, Gorbachev insists on 15 or more. On September 10, 1990, the two leaders agreed to 12 billion and three billion marks in the form of a loan. At the same time, the German government would obviously have allocated much larger sums.
“If Gorbachev had said, ‘Mr Chancellor, I agree, but this will cost the Federal Republic of Germany 50 billion or 80 billion’, could we have refused?” Horst Telchik, Helmut Kohl’s former foreign policy adviser, recalled in an interview with State Security in July 2010. And Gorbachev’s adviser, Valentin Falin, believes that Moscow could have asked for up to 100 billion DM.
Gorbachev is building a partnership with Germany
Critics say Gorbachev showed weakness during the talks and was more interested in his future place in history textbooks than in the fate of his country. “Germany owes a big thank you to Gorbachev and the Soviet Union,” said Bonn historian Martin Aust. “Gorbachev was convinced that he could create a new Soviet Union, as an element of a new world order in which the Soviet-American antagonism of the Cold War would no longer exist.” However, these hopes did not materialize.
However, Aust recalls that Gorbachev’s other merits are often forgotten. After reunification, Germany became Moscow’s advocate to the West. Berlin helped Russia join the then G-7, as well as join the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund.
Germany
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