Ussr Foreign Relations West Germany

A conference on German reunification could be held this year under the auspices of the 35 signatories of the Helsinki accords, a Soviet official declared Friday in East Berlin. The official, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri A. Gremitskikh, told a news conference that a reunited Germany must be neutral, as proposed Thursday by East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III arrived here Wednesday amid signs that his Soviet hosts will suggest deeper cuts in U.S. and Soviet forces in Central Europe than the 195,000-each figure proposed by President Bush last week. For his part, Baker presented "a number of new positions" in nuclear, conventional and chemical arms control during his first meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze. The new U.S.

West German legal experts suggested Thursday that the reunification of Germany could be brought about by a simple vote of the new East German Parliament that is to be elected March 18. Herbert Helmrich, chairman of the Legal Committee of the West German Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, said that Article 23 of the Federal Republic's Basic Law, or constitution, makes it possible for East Germany easily to unite with West Germany.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Saturday assured West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Soviet support for the early reunification of Germany at a pace and in a way determined by East and West Germany themselves. Gorbachev, reaffirming what Moscow regards as the German "right of self-determination," in effect cleared the way for the opening on Tuesday of preliminary negotiations between East Berlin and Bonn on reunification by pledging to respect the outcome.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl declared on his return from Moscow on Sunday that "the way is now free" for German reunification. His meeting with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev convinced him, he told West German radio, that the two German states should "enter into negotiations as quickly as possible" after the March 18 East German election.

Forty-five years after the end of World War II, the United States has proposed a process for the reunification of Germany that would begin almost immediately after East German elections March 18, senior State Department officials disclosed Monday. West Germany, Britain and France have agreed to the plan, dubbed "two plus four" because it involves the two Germanys plus the four victorious powers of the war, the officials said. The Soviet Union, including President Mikhail S.

President Bush expressed surprise Wednesday that the Soviet Union had withdrawn its strong opposition to the U.S.-backed reunification talks of the two German states and permitted "a major breakthrough" in the process. "This surprised me that they (the Soviets) were willing to make an agreement on that," Bush said. "I mean to be very elated about . . . the fact that the Secretary (of State James A.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl said Thursday that German reunification is close to becoming a fact. "We have never been so close to our goal--the unity of all Germans in freedom--as we are today," Kohl said in an address to the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, apparently seeking to calm East European concerns about the reunification of Germany, said in an interview published today that changes in German borders must be ruled out.

The Bush Administration, reacting to concerns that the two Germanys are moving too independently toward quick reunification, announced Tuesday that East and West Germany will hold their first formal meeting on reunification next week with the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The date and site of the sub-cabinet-level talks have not yet been announced.