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East Germany FOREIGN POLICY
In the mid-1980s, East Germany enjoyed diplomatic recognition
with over 130 countries. It was a member of the Soviet-directed
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) and the Warsaw
Pact military alliance. In September 1973, both Germanies were
admitted to membership in the United Nations (UN), and East
Germany has been active ever since in advancing Soviet and East
European positions in that international forum. During the same
period, it also became active in the developing world,
particularly Africa.
The evolution of foreign policy is intimately tied to the
condition of intra-German relations and to the domestic
situation. For the first two decades of its political existence,
East Germany had been effectively excluded from international
recognition by West Germany's Hallstein Doctrine, which required
that diplomatic relations be broken with any country that
recognized East Germany. The "diplomatic wave," a metaphor used
to describe the rush of foreign governments to recognize East
Germany, came after the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (1971) and
the Basic Treaty (1972) had been signed. East Germany's foreign
policy successes have also served domestic political purposes.
Since the early 1970s, the regime has used the international
recognition it has secured outside of Eastern Europe as a means
to impress the East German public with its permanence and
legitimacy.
In light of East Germany's newfound diplomatic legitimacy,
many of the traditional aspects of intra-German politics have
become a significant aspect of broader East-West relations. In
Third World countries, the two German states compete with each
other for influence on behalf of their respective alliance
systems. Within the UN, the two states have found
themselves on opposite sides of most issues, from north-south
economic and technology questions to the subject of arms control.
Data as of July 1987
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