Page:CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070029-7.pdf/58

 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070029-7

'''FIGURE 14. Signing in Warsaw of the Polish-West German treaty, 7 December 1970. From left, seated: West German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel, Chancellor Willy Brandt, former Polish Premier Jozef Cyrankiewicz, and former Foreign Minister Stefan Jedrychowski. (U/OU)''' (picture)

Democratic Union, including the party's head, Rainer Barzel. During the lengthy debate in Bonn over the West German treaties with Poland and the USSR, the Polish leadership reached with relative restraint, although the press did not conceal its apprehension and occasionally lapsed into polemics. Meanwhile, in line with an understanding technically separate from but in reality intrinsically connected with the spirit of the treaty, the Polish regime permitted the more rapid repatriation of ethnic Germans from Poland - an estimated 30,000 between December 1970 and mid-1972. Procedural, economic, and frequently, tactical considerations later reduced the number of expatriates below West German hopes and expectations, but there was no indication that the Polish regime was intent on reneging in principle.

When in May 1972 the Soviet and Polish treaties were finally ratified by the West German Bundestag (parliament), Warsaw was quick to follow suit, ratifying the Polish-West German treaty later the same month and hailing it as a development that was "opening new perspectives, even a new chapter, in the postwar history of Europe." In this respect, there is a significant difference between the Polish and Soviet interpretations of West Germany's obligations under the two respective treaties. While the USSR implicitly accepted the Bundestag resolution which held that the treaties do not prejudice the ultimate settlement of German boundaries at a peace conference, Poland made it clear that it regards the territorial provisions of its treaty with West Germany as final. Indeed, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (appointed December 1971), Stefan Olszowski, explicitly stated before the Polish parliament in late May 1972 that "all of the reservations of the unilateral resolution of the Bundestag have no validity in international law."

The ratification set in motion mutual moves toward diplomatic relations. On 5 June 1972 Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Jozef Czyrek visited Bonn to exchange ratification documents, and it was announced that diplomatic relations would soon be established by electing each country's established trade mission to the status of embassy and by appointing ambassadors. Following a delay, probably as a result of Warsaw Pact pressures on Poland not to get too far ahead of its allies (especially Pankow in its negotiations with Bonn), formal diplomatic relations were officially established on 14 September 1972 during Foreign Minister Olszowski's visit to Bonn - the first such visit by a Polish cabinet member to West Germany in the postwar period. Ambassadors were named in late October, and accredited in Warsaw and Bonn on 7 and 8 November 1972, respectively.

c. The non-Communist world

Immediately after taking power, the Gierek leadership made it clear it would make more dynamic utilization of the possibilities of the "new international situation," in which Poland's alliance with the Soviet Union and a policy of improved relations with the West are not only compatible but complementary. Indeed, a week after Gierek assumed power an authoritative article in the Warsaw daily Zycie Warszawy stated that:


 * "We are faced with a completely new situation in which Poland's pro-Soviet course is no longer incompatible with other international associations. At present, the Polish-Soviet alliance is helpful to us in expanding relations with other countries... Our participation in the socialist camp provides us with an opportunity to reach a Polish-German reconciliation and to revive ties with our traditional friends in the West."

52

APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070029-7