USSR-USA: Summit [antikvár]

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV'S REPLIES TO QUESTIONS PUT BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND NEWSWEEK On May 18 Mikhail Gorbachev met with a group of journalists from the Washington Post Co., talked to them and answered their questions. Participating in the meeting were Katharine Graham, Chairman of the Board of the Washington Post Co., Richard M. Smith, Editor-in-Chief o/Newsweek, Jimmie Hoagland and Meg Greenfield, editors from The Washington Post, and Robert G. Kaiser, Assistant Managing Editor for National News of The Washington Post. Question: Have the three meetings with President Reagan changed your ideas as to how peaceful competition between capitalist and socialist countries should be regulated in the future? How do you think the forthcoming summit will contribute to stabihzing that competition? Answer: I am convinced that positive trends are unfolding in the world. There is a turn from confrontation to coexistence. The winds of the cold war are being replaced by the winds of hope. And I see that a significant role in that process is played by the signs of improvement in the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. All over the world there is an acute need for change or, if you will, a need for restructuring international relations. In that situation it is essential to continue positive contacts between East and West. As for the dialogue between the United States and the Soviet Union, it is simply vital because of the great role they play in today's world. What is important is the very fact of that dialogue, not to mention its content, specifically, such exceptionally important joint statements as those regarding the inadmissibility of wars, nuclear or any other, the necessity of resolving problems by political means and of recognizing the realities of today's world.