Reagan-Gorbachov Talks Are a Dangerous Monopolization of the International Problems
«ZËRI I POPULLIT»
Albania Today: 3, 1988
The American President, Ronald Reagan, was on a five-day visit to the Soviet Union, during which he had intensive talks with the General Secretary of the CP of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachov. This was the fourth meeting in the last three years between the leaders of the two superpowers. Their meetings attract attention because each of them marks a new degree in the inter-imperialist political relations, in the agreements and rivalry between the superpowers and in the relationship of the Soviet-American collaboration and the world.
The Reagan-Gorbachov talks were not accompanied with any spectacular accord in the field of armaments, apart from the exchange of instruments of ratification signed last December, which includes the medium- and short-range missiles. The other agreement on a fifty per cent reduction of the strategic arms was deferred until some other time. Separate agreements were signed on the joint experimentation of checking-up on the correct implementation of the treaty of 1974 on the limitation of underground nuclear tests, another agreement on the preliminary warning system for the launching of inter-continental ballistic missiles and ballistic missiles launched from submarines, and another on rescue operations at sea, etc. The number and the kinds of agreements concluded does not reduce nor does it dissimulate the negative and dangerous effect which the negotiations and deals between the superpowers exert on the whole system of present-day international relations.
As in no other meeting with the American president, Gorbachov described the talks and the whole Soviet and American diplomacy as a «great» policy which affects millions and millions of people. The concept of this «great» policy claims to assume the right and unique role which the two superpowers have taken upon themselves to play; it has claims to the extension of the American-Soviet policy and operation to all regions and countries of the world, and to the high degree of the political and military co-ordination of interests of the two superpowers in the international arena.
The international public opinion is sick with the euphoria of propaganda about the bilateral meetings of the heads of the superpowers and with their pompous statements about «historic steps and pages». Each new Soviet-American meeting differs from the other only in the advancement of the American and the Soviet global strategy towards the rule and domination of the world, each in its own sphere of influence. This division, especially of the rest of the regions, apart from Europe in which the dividing line is more or less definite, is emerging more and more clearly as one of the most pressing problems they have.
In the political issues and relations the superpowers have made still greater advances, but at the same time it is here that the consequences and the great dangers of their hegemonic policies and ambitions with regard to the sovereign peoples and states upspring more flagrantly and in a more direct manner. To the present talks both sides came after having concluded the agreement on Afghanistan, which they presented as a model of the solution of all regional conflicts. The withdrawal of the occupation forces is, without doubt a good thing, but behind it lurk the deals and mutual concessions that have gone on between the superpowers. From this angle, the efforts they are making to have the Afghan model imposed everywhere else for the solution of other regional conflicts, expresses precisely the co-ordination of their political, juridical and military actions against the various peoples and countries on a world scale.
The Moscow talks openly proclaimed the rights of the superpowers, not only to discuss matters in the absence of the interested party, but also to adopt decisions binding on others, and to offer guarantee for the solution of all those conflicts the cause of which are they alone. The leaders of the two superpowers declared that in their talks they also discussed and «made headway» in the question of Angola and Cambodia, the Middle East and Ethiopia, and many other regions. In the press conference held on June 1, Gorbachov said that «the problems of local conflicts were discussed in the most exhausting manner in the meeting and we have reached a situation in which it can be said that real possibilities emerged here for the solution of the regional conflicts on the basis of the equilibrium of interests.»
Problems concerning Europe were also put on the negotiation table of the top-level meeting between the two superpowers. These problems were discussed without the participation of the Europeans, who were only informed after the accomplished fact. Their interests are disregarded and, what is more, pressure is put on them in order to get them do what the leaders of the superpowers decide on their behalf. Gorbachov declared without kid-gloves that the implementation of the agreements reached between the USA and the Soviet Union is a matter that concerns the other countries, especially the allies.
As on no other occasion before, this time in Moscow the two leaders evoked the coalition between the United States of America and the United Soviet Socialist Republics during the Second World War. History has recorded the values of the great anti-fascist world coalition, in which the United States and the Soviet Union participated, and against whom it was directed. But in this situation we cannot but ask the question; against whom is the present American-Soviet coalition designed, whom is it intended against? Reagan spoke about the «new collaboration», whereas Gorbachov about a greater understanding between the two sides, especially in the military field. For the first time the two leaders had taken along at the top-level meeting their ministers of war, who met and talked tête-à-tête to discuss «the various zones of the world and the exchanges between their respective departments». The spokesman for the American president, Fitzwater, called this «the most productive form of working relations that have developed at this top-level meeting».
In the contest to find «historic documents» to show the great imperialist collaboration with the USA, the Soviet leaders did not limit themselves to the years of the Second World War only, but searched for arguments also in the first years after the War. In the days of Reagan’s visit, the Soviet press declared that the one to blame for the cold war between socialism and imperialism after the Second World War was not the USA and the other capitalist powers, but Stalin with his «expansionist policy» and with his «obsession with «imperialist encirclement». Such a stand towards imperialism and its cold war policy could not displease the American president and the American monopoly bourgeoisie, who see that with the present Soviet leadership it is possible to achieve a better co-ordination of the attacks of their present cold war against socialism and the revolution.
The present top-level meeting ended without concluding the much publicized agreement, made six months before in Washington, about a fifty per cent reduction of strategic weapons. Whether or not they gave the world a treaty on strategic weapons, this, of course, is not without consequence. But independently of this, there remains the colossal destructive nuclear potential, just as there remains also the aggressive policy and the hegemonic strategy of the superpowers. The talks on armaments by the superpowers are only efforts to adjust the military rivalry, the strategic parity between themselves which is always difficult to maintain in the inter-imperialist relationships.
More than at the previous bilateral meetings, the recent talks between Reagan and Gorbachov were held under the sign of the needs of the Soviet leadership and the American administration in their internal policies. Gorbachov is on the eve of the first all-Soviet conference of the party, which will verify his program of perestroyka and will take decisions for a new phase of his «reforms». He needs a success in his foreign policy and international support, especially by his great rival and partner in the imperial plan for world domination. On this point, the American president was overgenerous and lavish with direct praise for «perestroyka» and its architect, and presented in rosy colours what he once had described as the «empire of evil». For his part, Reagan and his party are in the year of presidential elections and on the eve of party conventions for the nomination of candidates to the presidency. Reagan’s party also needs a success in the foreign policy and a Soviet support in order to have some electoral capital in store. In return, Gorbachov was unsparing in his praise for his «friend Reagan», whom he had previously called the president with fascist tendencies.
The whole affair at the recent Moscow meeting, the problems and directions, the projects and plans that were made known to the public, reveal before international opinion a continuity of the bilateral scheme in the policy and strategy of the two superpowers.
As the development of events shows, at the end of this century and on the eve of the 21st century, the peoples of the world will have to face the reality of the American-Soviet condominium, which is more dangerous than any imperialist alliance of the past. So the developments in the international life we are witnessing show with irrefutable force the correctness of the thesis expressed by Comrade Ramiz Alia at the 9th Congress of the PLA, that: «Any practice, not only present-day practice, but that throughout the epoch of imperialism, has shown that the agreements between the big powers made in the name of avoiding war and strengthening peace, the establishment of order or limitation of armaments, and so on, have all resulted in cynical deals to divide territories and spheres of influence, and to operate jointly against the liberation and revolutionary movements. The ententes and détentes can change their uniforms and names, but their aims remain the same.»
