The United States and Soviet Presidents, George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, each sent televised New Year messages to the other's country on Jan. 1.
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The two leaders expressed enthusiasm in developing closer ties between their countries during the 1990s and referred to the Malta summit in December 1989 as a turning point in their relations and in the disarmament talks. While Gorbachev called for superpower collaboration to "make more calm and reasonable", Bush sought to assure the Soviet Union that "the West sought no advantage from the extraordinary changes under way in the East". He went on to praised Gorbachev as "a good partner in peace".
Gorbachev declared that 1990 "could become a genuine turning point in the effort to limit and reduce arms" and that it would "open up a period of genuine co-operation, a world ruling out subversive action, pressure, interference and armed invasions". The 1990s could become a decade of "drawing the USA and the Soviet Union together on the basis of universal human values and the balance of interests, ridding the world of superfluous unnecessary weapons, outdated political concepts and military doctrines, and artificial barriers between peoples and states". He warned against "hesitations, waiting and attitudes, doubts and suspicions" and said it would be "naive, senseless and dangerous to try to thwart the aspiration for a better future". Turning to the internal Soviet situation Gorbachev described 1989 as "the most difficult year of perestroika " since its launch in 1985, as the country had "encountered a number of most acute problems", but he declared that the goal of "a humane, democratic socialism, a society of freedom and social justice" was within sight.
Bush reported his assurance to the Soviet leader at Malta that he would "support the dynamic process of reform in the Soviet Union" and that the two countries would "work together to reduce barriers to trade, investment and the free movement of goods and ideas" in order that "the entry of the Soviet Union into the global market be advanced". He declared that "democratic values" were "not exclusively American or Western" but were "deeply rooted in the human spirit". On arms talks, much remained to be done, but 1989 had given him "confidence that they were heading in the right direction".
This article comes from Keesings Worldwide Online
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