After the talks in Normandy, Mrs Thatcher went on to Bonn, and her meeting with the West German Chancellor, Herr Kohl. He was keen to emphasise the importance of their discussions. He said it was essential that Mrs Thatcher should go to Moscow with the support of her European friends, and her visit was taking place at “a highly important moment";. Reporting from Bonn, our Correspondent, Diana Goodman:
[end p1]Diana Goodman
Mrs Thatcher spent an hour and forty-five minutes with Chancellor Kohl and she said their meeting had been extremely useful. The two leaders had talked in detail about arms control negotiations with both of them being very much aware that they were responsible for the defence of their own countries and part of the NATO alliance. And Mrs Thatcher stressed the importance of comparing views on arms reductions.
MT
Defence weaponry is so complicated these days and the time taken to produce it so long, that one can never afford to make a mistake. Indeed, one mistake could mean that we could never catch up if anything were to happen and that is what makes it so important that we talk through these matters in great detail. The purpose of arms control is in fact to enhance security and not to diminish it.
Diana Goodman
The West German view is that Mr Gorbachev should be taken at his word when he speaks of new thinking in Soviet foreign policy and Chancellor Kohl spoke today of things starting to move under the Soviet leader. But both he and Mrs Thatcher were careful to stress that any agreement on reducing medium-range missiles must be followed almost immediately by talks on shorter-range weapons.