World No agreements but summit opens door to co-operation Tribune Combined Sources The long-awaited shipboard summit between U.S. President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev produced no formal agreements but it opened the door to what could be a new era for co- operation, both sides agreed. “We stand at the threshold of a brand new era of U.S. Soviet relations,” Bush told reporters following the Malta summit. “It is within our grasp to contribute ... to over- coming division of Europe and ending the military confrontation there.” Gorbachev declared: “‘We are just at the beginning of our road to a long lasting peaceful period. The new year calls for a new approach ... The world is ceasing the cold war and entering — as we believe and hope —a long period of peaceful co- operation.” The Soviet leader added during a televi- sion interview that although he would like to say the “cold war is over ... much from that period remains in approaches and for- eign policy activities of some states. Even now there are those who have not dispensed with the old baggage. “But we shall build a new Europe and shall not rebuild international relations if we stubbornly abide by old approaches and tackle new problems from old positions,” he said. BUSH, GORBACHEV ... ‘new oppor- tunities for co-operation opening.” Although the summit did not result in a joint communique or formal agreements, there was progress in several areas, including: Holiday Greetings to all our friends. For a nuclear-weapons free world by the year 2000. B.C. Peace Council Room 712, 207 W. Hastings Telephone: 685-9958 Annual Christmas Peace Appeal Send donations to: Fraser Valley Peace Council c/o 15991 Pacific Ave. White Rock, B.C. V4B 1T2 24 e Pacific Tribune, December 18, 1989 Peace to Everyone on Earth Fraser Valley Peace Council 531-1009 531-3070 e A full summit meeting, to be held in the USS. in June, 1990. sf e A new summit meeting of the signato- ries to the 35-nation 1975 Helsinki agree- ment. @ Nuclear and conventional arms trea- ties. The two leaders agreed to work to complete a treaty to cut long-range nuclear arms by half and a further agreement to reduce conventional arms and forces in Europe during 1990. However, significant differences remain on such issues as air-launched and sea- launched cruise missiles. The U.S. is also unwilling to negotiate on naval arms despite the USSR’s repeated call for talks on the issue. e A chemical weapons treaty. Gorba- chev termed the Bush proposals on chemi- cal arms “interesting” and said a “rapid movement” towards a global ban is possi- ble. Bush called for a bilateral agreement in 1990 cutting chemical arms to 20 per cent of the U.S. holdings. He dropped an earlier insistence on producing chemical weapons even after a global ban is completed. The USSR has called for complete elimi- nation of all chemical arms and has unilat- erally halted their production. e@ Trade and economic issues. Bush pledged to start talks immediately on lifting USS. trade barriers to trade with the USSR and said he would recommend most- favoured nation status for the USSR as soon as a new Soviet emigration law is enacted. Bush also agreed to support observer status for the USSR in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The two leaders reached no consensus on Central American issues. They did, how- ever, support the tripartite agreement for peace in Lebanon and cited the need to work for peace in the Middle East. On Europe, Gorbachev followed up Bush’s statement that Washington “has had a long-standing position” that the Helsinki agreement “spells out permanent borders” by noting thast there are “two German states in Europe today.” SEASON’S GREETINGS AND BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR to all our friends and supporters CHILEAN- CANADIAN FRIENDSHIP ‘SOCIETY Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev took to the pages of Pravda last month to present a detailed defence of socialism, echoing Karl Marx in calling it “the natural product of the progress of civilization and of the historical creative initiative of the people.” In his article, which took up nearly two pages of the Soviet Communist Party daily’s Nov. 26 edition, Gorbachev noted: “Opinions are now being voiced increasingly often that the socialist idea is artificial and abstract and therefore is devoid of a future; and that the theory of Marxism that expressed and substantiated it has not justified itself because it is responsible for the crisis state of our economy. “But it is clear that the founders of Marxism and the theory they created cannot bear responsibility for the deformations of socialism during the years of the personality cult and stagnation or for the mistaken actions of some political leaders,” he responded. ‘‘This is so not only because a century separates the emergence of the theory and those events, but also because of the substance of the matter. “There is now a world experience of socialism on which we can rely in determining the goals of our development. We now take a wider, deeper and more realistic view of socialism than in the recent past. “We view it as a world process in which, along with socialist countries with different stages of socio-economic and political development, there are also various currents of socialist thought and some social movements, different in their composition and motivation,” he said. Gorbachev emphasized that the perestroika program launched by the CPSU was aimed at creating modern socialism, based on science and humanism. ; “The socialism to which we advance © during perestroika means a society based on an effective economy, on the highest achievements of science, technology and culture and on humanized social structures. “Tt means a society which has democratized all aspects of social life and has produced conditions for an active and creative life and work for the people,” he said. “At the same time,” the article concluded, “many processes in the renewing of socialism are actually common to the whole of civilization, and they develop in this or that form in other social soil. Global problems common to everyone are beginning to occupy more and more room in humanity’ life. “All this gives ground to suppose that various social systems, while retaining their peculiarities, develop within a framework which, to an increasing extent, is limited only by the priority of universal human values such as peace, security, freedom and the opportunity for every people to decide their future. “The world of socialism is advancing to goals common to the whole of humanity, within the framework of a single civilization, without abandoning its own values and priorities, but increasingly developing and refining them along the road of revolutionary perestroika and the building of a genuinely human society on the principles of reason and humanism.”