|
East Germany Policy Toward the Industrial West
Since the diplomatic wave of the early 1970s, East Germany
has demonstrated a pronounced interest in expanding its economic
and, where possible, political ties with the industrial societies
of Western Europe and North America. This task has not been an
easy one. West Germany continued to emphasize that it views East
Germany as a special partner and accordingly reacted very
negatively to efforts on behalf of the European allies to
establish relations outside the existing framework that Bonn
considered acceptable.
East Germany's integration within Comecon and the Warsaw Pact
also has limited the amount of diplomatic room available for
building comprehensive ties with members of NATO. Furthermore,
the country has not been able to expand trade with the West
because of its existing delivery commitments to Comecon. Despite
these restrictions, since the mid-1970s East Germany's economy
has become increasingly tied to the market systems of Western
Europe and Japan. Although the relative volume of its trade with
those systems remained small, significant import and export
growth has still been registered.
In line with the emphasis on "dialogue" and a "coalition of
reason" with the West, in the 1980s East Germany pursued contacts
with Western governments. In 1984 an official East German-British
cultural agreement was signed. In 1984 Austria and East Germany
also signed a long-term economic accord and an agreement on the
bilateral recognition of certain university degrees. In 1985
Italy and East Germany signed a long-term economic cooperation
agreement outlining an expansion in bilateral trade and pledged a
prompt exchange of cultural centers in their respective capitals.
Japanese premier Yasuhiro Nakasone's 1987 visit to East Berlin
probably presaged greater economic cooperation between the two
countries.
Data as of July 1987
|
