President Bush and the leaders of six other major industrial nations took joint responsibility Saturday for helping the economic rebirth of Eastern Europe.
This help will go first to Poland and Hungary, which Bush visited earlier in the week. A statement issued at the seven nations` annual economic summit in Paris called for an international meeting ”in the next few weeks” to coordinate economic aid to the two nations, which lead the rest of the East bloc in political and economic reforms.
The meeting also will arrange urgent food aid for Poland, which has been brought to its knees by 40 years of economic mismanagement.
The summit members urged reforms in other Eastern European nations and offered them ”the opportunity to develop balanced economic cooperation.”
Hungary also faces severe economic problems, but its people have plenty to eat.
”There seems to be a marvelous unanimity of opinion on how to treat these East European countries,” Bush told reporters. Secretary of State James A. Baker III called it ”a joint commitment to advance the cause of freedom and economic opportunity.”
No specific helping hand was extended to the Soviet Union. But French President Francois Mitterrand read the summit a letter he received Friday from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, saying he wants to plug his country into the world economy and calling for a ”constructive dialogue” with the West on economic issues.
”The rest of the world can only gain from the opening . . . of a market such as the Soviet Union,” Gorbachev said. The letter was short on specifics, but Bush spokesman Marlin Fitzwater called it ”generally positive and supportive.”
But privately, administration officials were skeptical about whether Gorbachev`s appeal would lead anywhere, noting the enormous differences between the Western capitalist economies and the Soviet communist system.
If the Soviets had any objections to the summit nations` aid for Poland and Hungary or to Bush`s triumphant visits there, the letter showed no sign of it.
On the second day of their three-day summit, the seven leaders-representing the United States, France, West Germany, Japan, Britain, Italy and Canada-got down to business. Their opening day had been largely devoted to the pomp of the bicentennial of the French Revolution.
A declaration on economic issues-world debt, trade and interest rates-and a newfound interest in the environment, will close the summit Sunday. The gathering was so harmonious that the world leaders decided to end several hours earlier than scheduled Sunday-the first time any of the 15 annual summits have wrapped up early.
In their political statement Saturday, the leaders condemned terrorism, the drug trade and money laundering, and they urged China to stop actions against pro-democracy demonstrators.
The offer to Poland and Hungary was the centerpiece. It stopped short of specifying programs or setting a dollar figure on aid. But it fulfilled Bush`s promise in Poland and Hungary to relay to the summit those nations` need for help.
According to U.S. officials, Bush was impressed and moved by what he saw and heard in the two countries, which are trying desperately to restore their economies so they can rejoin the Western community after four decades of communist rule as Soviet fiefdoms.
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European Common Market officials said the Common Market president, Jacques Delors, suggested an international meeting when he saw Bush in Washington June 14. Bush bought the idea and gave it strong backing when it was proposed in Paris by West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Under the plan, Delors will arrange a meeting not only for the seven summit nations, but for the other Common Market nations and for ”all interested countries”-Sweden and Switzerland were mentioned-probably for next month. It marked the first time that the Common Market`s Executive Commission, pushing hard for an increased world role, will take on an international chore outside its own European area.
The idea, the statement said, is ”to concert support for the process of reform underway in Hungary and Poland, in order to make our measures of support more effective and mutually reinforcing.” This is necessary, it said, to give an economic underpinning to political reforms going on there now.
Among the measures that could be taken, it said, are encouragement of investment, joint ventures and management training. Such cooperation also would be a way to coordinate Western government credits and guarantees for trade and investment in the East, a source of discord among the Western allies over the last year.
The declaration left the seven nations free to develop their own programs toward Eastern Europe, but suggested they be coordinated, at least partly to avoid a competitive Western rush to exploit the new markets there.
The East-West emphasis overshadowed a mini-crisis over North-South cooperation. Mitterrand invited 24 Third World leaders to the bicentennial, a move resented by some of his summit allies, who felt they were being trapped into talks on North-South cooperation. Four of the Third Worlders asked Mitterrand to present a proposal to the summit for a conference on aid to developing countries.
Mitterrand did so but, apparently sensing the hostility toward the idea, put it on the table and quickly dropped it. The whole issue was discussed in less than 10 minutes, Baker said, and no more was heard of it.
The summit also called for a rescheduling of Poland`s official debt, now nearly $40 billion. Such a rescheduling would postpone for a year any repayment of principle or interest, saving the hard-pressed nation $5 billion. Meanwhile, White House Chief of Staff John Sununu said Mexico may clinch a deal shortly with bankers to trim its $100 billion loan portfolio. Administration officials are hoping that will prove the viability of its new strategy of emphasizing debt forgiveness for poorer nations struggling with $1.3 trillion in foreign debts.