DIPLOMACY: Berlin Breakthrough

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After several last-minute delays, the two Germanys last week initialed an agreement that represents a crucial advance in East-West relations. Negotiated under the aegis of the broader Big Four talks on Berlin, the agreement aims at eliminating a chief source of cold war tensions by guaranteeing relatively free passage of people and goods between West Germany and West Berlin, which is 110 miles inside Communist-ruled East Germany.

In a parallel development, East Germany agreed to grant passes through the Wall dividing the city; they will be good for up to 30 days a year for West Berliners planning to visit East Berlin and East Germany. West Berliners have been barred from East Berlin since 1966, from East Germany since 1952. Disputes over the terms of the passes had delayed the initialing of the access agreement for a week.

Since the Berlin access issue was the key to a diplomatic breakthrough, the way now is open for further progress. The most immediate effect is that the Big Four now can sign the final Berlin protocol, which will incorporate the access and Wall-pass agreements. At Soviet insistence, West Germany is expected to ratify the renunciation-of-force agreements it negotiated in 1970 with Poland and the Soviet Union, so that they will go into effect at the same time the Berlin protocol is signed. The NATO countries, which have made Berlin a test of Soviet intentions, will then be prepared to accept the Communist invitation to a conference on European security that will in effect end World War 11 with formal international acceptance of the status quo on the divided continent.