Prime Minister
Chancellor Kohl, Ladies and Gentlemen of the press.
This has been a rather too brief bilateral. As you know, it is not only talks between Chancellor Kohl and myself but between our Foreign Ministers, between Defence Ministers, Finance Ministers and Trade Ministers. All of us have agreed that the time to confer has been rather too short because there is so much to say in a rapidly changing situation. We shall of course continue our discussions over lunch.
The discussions have been extremely good and very fruitful. Naturally we have talked about the very big issues that face us: the future of NATO, which we are all agreed that the unified Germany has to stay in NATO, that it is to the advantage of all of us that that should be so and Chancellor Kohl and his government have been very staunch about that throughout; there are still some problems which remain to be solved with regard to East Germany and [end p1] we are not able to give you a sudden solution, there are certain options that have to be worked out in a changing situation and we agree to keep in very close touch about all these matters; we have also discussed the unification of Germany and Chancellor Kohl, and I think each of the Ministers, have given us very interesting information as to precisely how it is happening, the enormity of the task, how they propose to tackle it and also pointed out there really are very great opportunities for the whole of Europe in trade in East Germany, in contacts in East Germany and in all of us taking part in that great unification process and bringing it to fruition.
We have discussed, too, other matters. We had a brief word about Lithuania and the situation there and agreed it is absolutely vital that it be resolved by dialogue and discussion. So much has been achieved in the new situation in the Soviet Union under President Gorbachev that we feel certain that this problem, with all its sensitivities and difficulties, can also be solved by dialogue and discussion.
We spoke briefly about South Africa where we both take similar views and we shall both be seeing President de Klerk on his tour to Europe and we are both of us taking steps to help the black South Africans to have both more education, training and housing. [end p2]
We have also indicated that we welcome very much the completion of the Single Market in 1992. This is one of the most forward steps taken in the whole of the history of the Community and we work for that, we work for its completion and we work always between us for getting the barriers to trade and services down, and again that was reaffirmed this morning.
On economic and monetary union, our Finance Ministers conferred and it obviously is going to be extremely important. And may I affirm once again that Britain will join the Exchange Rate Mechanism when the conditions that we laid down are complete. And may I also say that progress is being made towards the completion of those conditions and we want to get our own inflation down so that we shall be in a position to join.
There is just one brief statement that I have to make. To commemorate this bilateral, we are announcing an important English Language Training initiative for East Germany, funded by Britain. There is a great need for English language skills as East Germany adapts to the Western economic system. We are happy to be able to meet this need, it is a need which the British Council is very able and skilled at providing. It will be language training for schools, universities, for management, for any of the many areas where English language will be needed. And Chancellor Kohl has particularly asked that we should also provide a number of [end p3] scholarships for the people of East Germany to come to our country and we gladly accede to that. I am sure it will be both valuable for them and for us to have this contact.
We agreed too that Ministers, both the Bundeskanzler and myself, and each group of Ministers must keep in very close contact during the coming months so that we can agree upon the wider line that we shall take in the many decisions which have to be made in the coming year. And we look forward to very close consultation indeed. [end p4]
Chancellor Kohl
Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen:
First of all, I would like to take the occasion to thank you here in public for your very warm welcome and for the very open, constructive discussions that we have had both of us, but we also know that discussions have also been held between our Ministers in a very constructive framework and spirit.
For us and for me as the German Chancellor, the relationships between the United Kingdom and Germany are a very fundamental element in our foreign policy. Without the support of Britain, we could not have had forty years of freedom and peace because the soldiers of the Army of the Rhine supported this just as much as the ones who supported the Air Bridge to Berlin at the time and we have not forgotten this. We also know that the path towards a unified Germany will be possible if we take it together with our British friends. [end p5]
I very much welcome your proposal and your offer to the citizens of the GDR to help them to learn English and that you are also prepared to consider offering scholarships. I think this is of enormous importance because it actually sends a signal to our compatriots in the GDR that they are all part of Europe and I think this is a very important element today in the GDR and if in this most peaceful of all revolutions of German history they said: “We are one people and we are the people!” then I think they always meant—and I have heard this in many encounters— “we are part of Europe!” and the people in Leipzig, Dresden and elsewhere are exactly the same and think the same as we do—we are German Europeans and European Germans. That is our goal, the goal that we want to reach in common, and I think each signal and also a signal coming from Britain that confirms this, is enormously important and also very valuable and I thank you for it.
Of course, there are problems in this whole process of German unity but we wish and I wish that we can tackle it all in such a way so that nobody feels surprised or that they are asking too much but that in the international fora in the “Two plus Four” talks in NATO, in the Community, we can actually cooperate very closely and inform each other very closely indeed and that is something we are planning in particular for the next weeks and months. [end p6]
During the process that is developing in Germany that will be enormously important this year and next year and that will certainly result some time—perhaps in the second half of next year—in elections in the whole of Germany, we wish to cooperate very closely indeed and we hope that if the economic conditions are realised, monetary union, economic union, union in terms of social security, that once these conditions are fulfilled many companies, also British companies, will invest and will settle in this area and all of you who are considering it, I would like to tell you that there are excellent skilled workers, you have got technicians and chemists, and there is an enormous workforce that is highly skilled and I would invite you to invest there.
I am sure we all have the will to actually achieve something and this in a framework of a market economy and I am sure it will be possible to transform this whole area into a flourishing area of Germany and Europe to the benefit of all and this is really part of our future.
I would like to say again that in parallel to German unity we also have unification and unity in Europe so that one process does not actually impair the other one, but the two processes should support and stimulate each other and that is again a very important goal of our policy. [end p7]
David Marsh (Financial Times)
Mrs. Thatcher, last night in Cambridge, you made some interesting observations about our old friends, the short-range nuclear missiles in Europe.
Can you tell us, first, whether you think there will now in future be only air-launched nuclear missiles in West Germany because the land-based will be removed or be negotiated away? Secondly, will that satisfy you, to have now no longer any land-based nuclear missiles in the foreseeable future in West Germany?
Prime Minister
I will answer you briefly as I would answer in the House of Commons:
This is a matter which has still to be worked out in conjunction with our partners in NATO. At present we have agreement on the last occasion we met. Obviously, things will be changed; we have to work them out together and we shall keep close to one another to do so.
I hope that satisfies you! [end p8]
Chancellor Kohl
Yes, I think the world has changed and within NATO, we will have to draw the consequences in reasonable discussions.
If you think of the range of these weapons, then you know that this range would reach cities like Prague, Budapest or the German city of Rostock where I just talked in front of a crowd of 100,000 people. I think we have to see that we can have reasonable discussions which also result in very reasonable and sensible results.
Question (Polish Press Agency)
Dr. Kohl, … letter of Polish bishops to the German bishops with a very controversial phrase: “We forgive you and we beg forgiveness!” in 1965. I hope you remember also an interview given by General Jaruzelski in 1985 to a Western territories Polish paper, where he expressed his sympathies and condolences toward the ex-police, [sic: expellees?].
Chancellor Kohl, you quoted yesterday the noble words of the Vaclav HavelPresident of Czechoslovakia. Can I hope you remember those other words which opened the way for Willy Schmidt [sic] to the Warsaw ghetto and for yours to Auschwitz? [end p9]
Chancellor Kohl
I would like to reply to your question.
Of course, I know this letter of the Polish bishops and I know the reply of the German bishops.
The bishops are after all priests and I think they have to first fulfil their Christian duty and this means that they have to act in the spirit of reconciliation and that is why I welcomed that letter at the time just as I welcome it now.
I can only read from your question that you are making a difference, but I think we are at a historic moment, particularly we as Germans. There is the question of the recognition of the Oder/Neisse border, to another it in a treaty of a unified Germany with Poland, and that is a historic moment.
I think it is a very good thing if at such a moment one can actually find a word of reconciliation and I am very grateful to the President of Czechoslovakia for his message, which also elicited a very positive response in the Federal Republic.
If between Poles and Germans we can find similar words and we can talk to each other like that, then this is a real peace and this is what I hope for.
I have said very clearly in these days that we have no claims but if we are trying to look into the future, we do not want to forget anything. We want to look into the future and it is good to remember a good word, a good sentence pronounced in 1985 and of course, we cannot forget history and it is right to remember it and the terrible things that were done but I think we have to remember all of history and I want to promote peace. [end p10]
Jon Snow
Prime Minister, last night in Cambridge, you mapped out a vision of Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals.
I am wondering whether the messages the morning after from erstwhile Cabinet colleagues still referring to the question of the leadership of your Party in any sense weaken the prospects that you will be around to see that vision fulfilled?
Prime Minister
I congratulate you on the ingenuity of your question! I shall give you the standard answer which I am sure you would expect.
Yes, I did map out a framework for the future last night.
We have three things to do: to work within our present framework, because that is our security; to recognise that things are changing; and to work out the transition, which is what we are doing now, but also to recognise that if our greatest hopes are achieved, the whole of the Soviet Union and the whole of Eastern Europe will become democracies working on a social market economy and that that will require a new framework of cooperation and I suggested one last night.
I suggest that is sufficient meat for you to do a very good report! Thank you for your question! [end p11]
Paul Reynolds (BBC, Radio)
Prime Minister, you and Dr. Kohl seem to differ on your vision of the future of Europe and I would like to ask both of you to expand a little—Dr. Kohl on the kind of political union he foresees in the European Community and whether those ideas are acceptable to you, Mrs. Thatcher?
Chancellor Kohl
I think you will appreciate very much that I am the first to answer this question!
My vision is the vision of the Treaty of Rome because the Treaties of Rome are based on the vision of those major European personalities who tried to learn from their experiences of the Second World War.
I would like to remind you of the speech of Winston Churchill in Zurich and let us remember Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer and Alcide de Gasperi, Paul Henri Spaak; they had one idea and I think this idea is just as young and just as valid as it was at the time.
They said the world of the future—and it starts in ten years with the year 2000—will be a world where only larger unities can have a real influence and if we do not want to simply depend on others but if we actually want to have an influence, then we have to have the will for political union of Europe as well. That is a pre-condition. [end p12]
A large market is, of course, extremely important but it is only a step on the way and if we want to go further, then we also need a development that allows Europe to speak as one voice, first the Europe of the Twelve as a nucleus.
I think the messages that are expected elsewhere are not British or German messages but European ones and there is a lot of work to be done in cooperation in all the areas that are topical now. For instance, what will the situation be economically in Central and Southern Europe vis-a-vis the Soviet Union? There is a lot to be done and an individual country cannot do it in Europe.
I also think that it is very important for the world of tomorrow to mobilise and coordinate our resources and research also in the area of security.
I pointed to some of these examples yesterday in my speech in Cambridge. You have got the whole question of the rights of parliaments, the cooperation among and with these European institutions and, of course, the larger Single Market is one further step.
I would hope that the process of German unification would also support the process of European unification. This process obviously has started to develop and some of the arguments are perhaps not very flattering for the Germans, but why should I not say this? I do not mind the arguments if we actually reach the [end p13] goal and for me, for our policy, the goal is the political unification of Europe. If some say: “Ah, but it has become very urgent because we have German unification and it is important in order to control Germany!” we do not mind this argument even if it is not very flattering because it is the goal that counts and that is what I wanted to say very clearly. [end p14]
Prime Minister
I will answer as briefly as I can. First, I think sometimes that words are used which mean different things to different people and it is the interpretation of the words which causes the problem rather than the words themselves.
We already have extensive political cooperation. In each Council of Ministers we already have to agree on the way to go forward. In difficult international situations we issue a statement from the whole of Europe, agreed by each Council of Ministers. This is very good and increasing political cooperation and I think this is what most of us mean. We appreciate that it is being more and more used in each and every sphere, whether it be the economic sphere, the trading sphere, the agricultural sphere or the political sphere. It is best as it is at the moment and as it is growing together because we each of us willingly cooperate, each of us keeping our own pride, our own national pride, our own history, our own identity, our own characteristics, which we bring together to Europe as a whole. [end p15]
I believe in Europe growing together in that way, with willing cooperation, and I believe that it is growing day-by-day and that is the way I would like to keep it.
Question (Sky TV)
Following on from what you were just saying, I wondered whether Dr Kohl had any words of wisdom for you about Britain's early membership of the ERM?
Prime Minister
No, we did not discuss that. You heard what I said earlier, would you like me to repeat it for the present? We are committed to joining the Exchange Rate Mechanism when the conditions we set down are fulfilled. Some of those depend on the countries of Europe, some depend upon how quickly we can get down our own inflation so that it is nearer what happens in Europe. Very great progress is being insofar as the things depend upon the rest of Europe. For example, there is now much more liberation, though not total, of capital movement. We hope soon to get down our own rate of inflation and when all of those conditions are met we are committed to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism. [end p16]
Question (Andrew McEwen, The Times)
Herr Kohl, Mrs Thatcher in her speech last night set out three conditions which she said were essential for the future security of Europe. One of them was that NATO should retain nuclear weapons in Germany. She also said that the United States, Britain and France should retain sizeable forces in Germany. May we hear your views on these points please?
Chancellor Kohl
That is my opinion too. I think in future we need the full protection of NATO for the territory of Germany.
Question
Chancellor, I would like to come back to this particular point. Do you agree with the Prime Minister that we need NATO nuclear weapons on West German territory after reunification, do we need it?
Chancellor Kohl
I think, as does Mrs Thatcher, that the overall question of defence and security is something that we cannot see in isolation of other questions and we cannot isolate it with a view to other questions, for instance the German question. In the Two Plus Four discussions we want to talk about the specifically German questions. But all the other questions and your question is a much more general question and that is something which has to be discussed between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. [end p17]
I would not like to see a situation in which Germany gets into a special position. This is very important for us, we do not want any special arrangement, not neutralisation or demilitarisation, because all this would be a sort of special status for Germany and that would lead to isolation and you know where that leads. Because Germany during the Weimar Republic was neutralised and isolated and that means that within NATO we are now having discussions between NATO and the Warsaw Pact about disarmament and arms control and I think we can now achieve enormous progress and progress that would have been unimaginable, unthinkable, one or two years ago in the area of reduction of conventional weapons, in the ban of chemical weapons and short-range nuclear weapons.
To give you a concrete reply, I think we have to guarantee the full protection of NATO and this also, under Article 5 and 6 of the Treaty, and that is the main heading. There must not be any different types of security for different German areas or different areas which does not mean that you cannot have transitional solutions or discussions about transitional agreements. At the moment you have got Soviet forces in the GDR and of course a unified Germany must be prepared to accept transitional solutions. But these are questions that we can discuss. [end p18]
Question (John Dickie, Daily Mail)
Do I take it from both your answers on the nuclear questions that provided there is some nuclear weapon presence in Germany after reunification, you are both agreed that there is no need to modernise the Lance missile?
Prime Minister
No, I think you are going further than in fact we agreed. We both agreed that the presence of nuclear weapons on European soil, and I think German soil is the preferred soil for American nuclear weapons, is vital. We have not in fact got down to the details. That, as I indicated earlier, has to be negotiated through NATO and will be negotiated through NATO.
Chancellor Kohl
As to the question of the follow-up to the Lance missiles, and you know it is not Lance itself, may I remind what we talked about a year ago and you see how the world has changed in this year and it is obvious that of course we have to take into account these very profound changes in the world and this is why this question does not worry me at all.
Question (Le Monde)
Prime Minister, I understand in the proposals by Chancellor Kohl about Europe there is this idea of an increase in the powers of the European Parliament. Are you in favour of such an increase in these powers? [end p19]
Prime Minister
I will give you a brief answer. It is not long since we increased the powers under the Single European Act. At the moment I see no further need for any further increase.
Question (Satellite One, Germany)
Prime Minister, you expressed serious doubts about Chancellor Kohl 's attitude on the German-Polish border before be came here, do you have these doubts still?
Prime Minister
You forget that I had previously sent a special message to Chancellor Kohl after the decision, which was publicly announced, that the two Germanies in fact agreed that they shall make a declaration about the Oder-Neisse Line in Poland, make a declaration, and that then, after unification has taken place, they shall sign a Treaty with Poland as the single unified Germany, signing with Poland, a Treaty of Guarantee of that line. So it was all dealt with before Chancellor Kohl came here and I congratulated him upon it before he came here and I congratulate him upon it now.
Did you want to add anything?
Chancellor Kohl
No, that was a perfect answer.