Excerpts from Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush June 1 1990 White House GORBACHEV One has to make a choice If today supporting Lithuania is more important for the U S President I am taking it into account BUSH Maybe tomorrow we can talk about that in a more relaxed atmosphere By the way I heard that the new President of the RSFSR Russian Federation is calling for new relations with Lithuania Of course this is your business but this is a special case considering the history of the Lithuanian problem Nonetheless we want a trade agreement and we have never been so close to it as we are now I don't know what I can propose here But I don't want to enter into public debates on this issue because we might create an impression that I dictate to the Soviet Union on an issue which is its internal affair In terms of diplomacy it is bad We need some kind of a flexible formula here Otherwise it does not make sense to present this agreement to an unfriendly Congress--they would just tear it apart GORBACHEV OK I see that you have made a decision and it is unlikely that we will make any progress on this issue today After all we lived for decades without a trade agreement and we will survive now as well it is not a life and death issue I am only concerned about one thing--it is known both in the U S and in the USSR that our package for this meeting included two elements--strategic offensive weapons and the trade agreement One element falls out Here we will have to do some explaining-- where and why it does BUSH Yes I am aware of that And I was already subjected to criticism--because in the United States all these issues are widely discussed I want our meeting to be successful GORBACHEV I already told you everything on this issue and I emphasized the importance of your political gesture--a gesture of the U S President Now everything is in your hands BUSH I will keep looking for a way out of this situation Maybe we will find something GORBACHEV I am confident that we will find some solution in the fresh air at Camp David Plenary session BUSH We are not that far from each other Maybe only on the issue of noncircumvention and on some other issues like heavy ICBMs and Backfire bomber Therefore I propose that these issues should be considered again today in the afternoon In the statement about future negotiations we should give a push to negotiations point to their future positive results All this will not only encourage further creation of positive atmosphere between our countries but also will be received positively in the entire world GORBACHEV Mr President I share what you just said that we have done great work and have traveled a long way But here I would like to make a statement that we have a firm intention to reach a signing of this treaty already in this year This is the most important thing This is what makes me worried We had an understanding that there was collaboration between the U S and Great Britain on nuclear issues And suddenly we discovered that our partners had a different understanding We had an agreement from Reykjavik that until a certain moment we would not include the issue of British and French nuclear weapons This was our concession which opened the door for the negotiations At the same time we established our understanding that at a certain stage when we begin deep reductions of nuclear weapons these members of the nuclear club would join us By the way we can also find a corresponding statement by Thatcher that when the U S and the USSR sign an agreement on the 50% reductions then Great Britain would be ready to join the discussion of issues of nuclear weapons In his characteristic manner Mitterrand also expressed this idea and even China responded Today we are approaching the treaty on 50% reductions and now all other members of the club should participate too But suddenly we see that instead of joining the discussion in the nuclear club they propose an idea which if implemented would allow them to increase the number of nuclear weapons on the other side This is illogical Translated by Svetlana Savranskaya for the National Security Archive Source Archive of the Gorbachev Foundation Fond 1 opis 1 published in Otvechaya na vyzov vremeni Moscow Gorbachev Fond Ves'Mir 2010 pp 264-265 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