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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, SEPTEMBER 2, 1986
PAGE 17
However, they are accepting the economic openings, and the
border concession is a powerful incentive to reach an agreement
on the troop issue.
The significance of these moves is not limited to Soviet-Chinese
relations.
First, Soviet concessions on the river boundary
removed the major obstacle to giving several disputed offshore
islands to Japan. The Soviets had feared that such a gift would
cause China to harden its demands for disputed river territory.
Now Soviet diplomacy with Japan is becoming extremely active.
And the timing of the Soviets' moves reaffirms the seriousness
of their courtship of Europe.
The Chinese had announced a
reduction of 1 million troops some time ago. The Soviets were
remarkably slow in responding, probably
because they were
uncertain about where to relocate troops involved in a border
pull-back. A shift of large numbers t9 the West would frighten
Europe;· if they were demobilized before negotiations with
Europe, the Soviet Union would seem weak. The Soviets' proposal
in June for a mutual reduction of 100,000 to 200,000 troops in
Europe in the next year or so, and a total of 500,000 by the
early 1990s, enabled Moscow to make the subsequent troop
reduction offer to Peking••••
The Soviet Union and China still have many conflicting interests
and views, and they are unlikely ever to become close allies
again. But only a person guided by hopes rather than by the
evidence would believe that nothing is changing in Soviet
policy.... In any case we should not kid ourselves.
If the
Soviet Union is makin
6
serious offers to Europe, Japan and
China,� face� real c allenge.
As further evidence of the geopolitical activity generated under the
dynamic leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet officials recently said
they are considering entering joint business ventures with Western
nations. The u.s.s.R., they added, would even like to become a "full
fledged member" of the Western-world General Agreements in Trade and
Tariffs (GATT), an organization devoted to reducing trade barriers between
nations. Moscow has asked to participate as an observer at an upcoming
GATT conference. (How the state-run Soviet economy would mesh with those
of the capitalist world nobody knows.)
And in perhaps the most remarkable evidence of Soviet openness under Mr.
Gorbachev, there are reports that the Soviet Union would like to joiµ
Interpol, the international police network, in an effort to combat growing
levels of crime, especially drug trafficking. The Soviets have previously
been loathe to admit the existence of such social ills.
Religious Resurgence Enlivens Eastern Europe
Meanwhile yet another
phenomenon, highly disturbing to communist authorities, is taking place in
Eastern Europe -- a "flowering of faith," according to the August 25 U.S.
NEWS AND WORLD REPORT:
Communist leaders for 40 years have
degrees of intensity, the creation
encouraged,
of Lenin's
with varying
religion-free