Kohl, Yeltsin Discuss NATO Expansion

MOSCOW â€”  German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the first Western leader to see Boris N. Yeltsin since the Russian president’s heart operation in November, emerged from talks with his Kremlin ally Saturday full of hope that Russia and the West can settle a dispute over NATO expansion this year.

“I think that this year we will find a rational solution which will make NATO enlargement possible and will at the same time respect the security interests of all partners concerned,� a cheerful Kohl told a news conference after meeting with Yeltsin at a country house 60 miles west of Moscow.

“We must talk to each other, do away with mistrust and look for a compromise,� added the German leader, who is close to Yeltsin. Such a compromise “will create no dividing lines, will put up no new walls and will take full account of Russia’s legitimate security interests.�

Russia is anxious about plans by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to sign up new members from among Moscow’s Cold War-era satellites in Central and Eastern Europe, fearing that its own security will be endangered if a once-hostile military bloc moves to its doorstep.

NATO plans to issue the first membership invitations in July--probably to Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic--and new members are likely to be absorbed into the alliance by 1999. What worries Russia most is that NATO could start swallowing up former Soviet republics even closer to home.

Kohl said he and Yeltsin still have some differences of opinion, “but we evaluated a couple of ideas, which I will discuss with my NATO colleagues over the next couple of days on the telephone.�

Yeltsin, who became ill during his reelection campaign last summer, has largely kept out of the public eye since then but has resumed many of his presidential duties. In his absence, different Russian ministers have expressed contradictory attitudes about NATO.

Moscow’s NATO expansion fears are likely to be aired during a hectic series of meetings that Yeltsin has scheduled with foreign leaders over the next three months, but Western politicians are hoping that the Russian views--even if not favorable--will be more coherently expressed.

French President Jacques Chirac is expected in Moscow for a January summit; Yeltsin will meet President Clinton in March; and he has a springtime meeting penciled in with British Prime Minister John Major.

Kohl and Yeltsin, who last met in Russia in September as Yeltsin was preparing for bypass surgery, plan to meet again in April in Germany, where Yeltsin will be awarded a “man of the year� prize by journalists in Baden-Baden. The Russian leader also invited Germany’s president, Roman Herzog, to Russia in the summer.

Television footage Saturday showed Yeltsin, looking tired but smiling, embracing the German chancellor, who was flown to the country residence by helicopter for the talks. The warmth of the personal ties between the two was further demonstrated by Kohl’s frequent expressions of relief at Yeltsin’s return to health.

“It’s very important that you are back in the Kremlin and are carrying out your duties,� Yeltsin spokesman Sergei V. Yastrzhembsky quoted Kohl as telling Yeltsin. “As a friend,� the chancellor advised Yeltsin “to be careful and not to be in a hurry to get back to work on a full scale.�