4292 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION SUBJECT Telephone Call from Chancellor Helmut Kohl of the Federal Republic of Germany U PARTICIPANTS The President Helmut Kohl Chancellor Robert Hutchings NSC Staff Notetaker Gisela Marcuse Interpreter DATE TIME AND PLACE M y The President Chancellor Kohl 3D 1990 7 34 - 7 43 a m ' The Oval Office C Helmut U Good morning How'are you The President I am getting ready for the to hear your voice U ig 0 visit I am glad Chancellor Kohl That is why I am calling I wanted to exchange views for a couple of minutes One thing George you can rely on our fullest support I acknowledge very much what you have done for us and appreciate your friendship and reliability One thing that is very important for Gorbachev to understand is that irrespective of developments we will stand side by side And one sign of this cooperation are the links between us by the future membership of a united Germany in NATO without any limitations You should make this clear to him but in a friendly way and also make it clear that is the view I hold There should be no doubt about that A second point we can find a sensible economic arrangement with him He needs help very much He should also know that we have no intention of profiting from his weakness A final point it is of immense importance that we make further progress in disarmament C The President I appreciate your comments very much On the German Question as it is called I don't expect much breakthrough I won't change my views but I will assure him we are side by side We will layout our views on the Two Plus Four including the need to terminate Four Power rights at the time of unification with no new constraints on German sovereignty We want him to corne out feeling he has had a good Summit even though there are no major breakthroughs I think we can do it We have a wide range of agreements to sign On the economic side I remember your private conversation with me Subsequently that has been raised with Jim Baker We have problems with that related to Lithuania But I will take your advice I don't want him to think we are taking advantage of him BUSH LIBRARY PHOTOr I1 eO ri - T 1 ' l JT I b Declassify on OADR v DECLASSIFIED PER E O 12958 a J because of his weakness We will move the arms control agenda forward but he must realize that on conventional forces those are Alliance decisions We can talk about this in general terms but on matters like the levels of German forces beyond those already on the table we cannot make commitments We really appreciated your offer to help on levels of the Bundeswehr but we feel it is a little premature Brent Scowcroft has gotten to Horst Teltschik on that But it was a very generous offer on your part C Chahcellor Kohl George to make this very clear the wind blew some rumors my way and I instructed Teltschik to approach Brent Scowcroft I said we can discuss everything but we have to agree beforehand before we reach agreement Nothing is going to change on that You' 'can rely on it C The President Good I think we are up to date to seeing you next week U Chancellor Kohl I look forward I am very much looking forward to it End of Conversation U - 13USH LIBRARY PHOTOCOPY ln I J nCf lTI tJUhl lULl '11 i'L In This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu