Interested Bystanders

As he strode out of the U.S. ambassador's residence in West Berlin last week, Soviet Ambassador Pyotr Abra-simov smiled at the waiting crowd, clasped his hands above his head and shouted exuberantly, "The matter is perfect!" Moving more rapidly than expected, the ambassadors from the U.S., France, Britain and the Soviet Union planned just one more meeting this week to record formally their governments' approval of a preliminary agreement to end Berlin's unhappy postwar role as a focus of East-West tensions.

Even before the formalities were over, West and East German negotiators began work on filling in the fine print of the agreement, which gives the Soviets some significant symbolic concessions--including the right to establish a consulate in West Berlin--in return for practical concessions long sought by the Western powers (TIME, Aug. 30). Most notable of those concessions is a Soviet promise to end East German harassment of travelers along the roads, rail lines and waterways linking West Germany and West Berlin, which is located 110 miles inside East German territory. Now the two Germanys must work out procedures that will, among other things, reduce the tedious delays at the East German checkpoints at each end of the West German-West Berlin Autobahnen. The present average of 45 minutes is expected to drop to as little as 30 seconds.

Nagging Fear. Those negotiations could last several months. Meanwhile, France last week called for the convening of a conference on European security, a goal long pursued by the Soviets, who hope to win Western recognition of the status quo in Eastern Europe and to create a general atmosphere of relaxation in which West Europeans might feel less dependent on a large U.S. military presence. The U.S. has pronounced itself "not irrevocably opposed" to such a conference, but it is much more interested in discussing mutual and balanced force reductions. For the moment, however, Moscow seems preoccupied with Peking's growing presence in Europe. Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny and Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev are due to make their long-planned visit to Paris in October--just three weeks, as it happens, after a visit by a high-level Chinese delegation.

Of course, it is the Eastern Europeans who stand to gain most from detente and who are the most interested bystanders. Mutual and balanced force reduction, for instance, might relieve them of some of the Soviet troops within their borders. Similarly, a European security conference would emphasize the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each state. That would be particularly appealing to the Rumanians, who now live with a nagging fear that Moscow may some day use its military muscle to express its displeasure with Bucharest's recent overtures to Peking.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.