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Horst Teltschik diary

Cold War: Horst Teltschik diary (Kohl-MT phone conversation in which she accepted unification) [translation]

Document type: Declassified documents
Source: Horst Teltschik, 329 Tage: Innenansichten der Einigung [329 Days: Inside Views of the Unification] , Siedler Publishing 1991
Editorial comments: Translated specially for www.margaretthatcher.org. Dr Teltschik was Helmut Kohl’s closest foreign policy adviser.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 95
Themes: Defence (general), Foreign policy (USA), Foreign policy (USSR & successor states), Foreign policy (Western Europe - non-EU)

Saturday, 24 February 1990

Helmut Kohl is the first German Federal Chancellor to come to Camp David. Invitations there are a special gesture by the President. .... George Bush places great value on locking in the close co-operation between the USA and the Federal Republic and the other alliance partners too. The anxieties of the others must be removed by close consultation. Before the arrival of the Chancellor, he had a good hour on the telephone with Margaret Thatcher. In the course of this, she accepted the reunification, something that she would still not have said three months ago.