Page 294

2DOCUMENTS ON GERMANY, 19 4 4-5 9
European states regardless of their social structure and membership
in one or the other grouping of Powers.
The Soviet Union liquidated its military bases located in the terri-
tory of other states. Beyond the confines of its own borders the So-
viet Union does not maintain stockpiles of atomic and hydrogen arms
.or missile launching sites. In the last three years the strength of the
Soviet armed forces has been reduced unilaterally by a total of two
million one hundred forty thousand persons. In this regard the armed
forces of the USSR in the German Democratic Republic were reduced
by more than ninety thousand persons. Military expenditures and
armaments were correspondingly reduced. At the last session of the
Supreme Soviet of the USSR a resolution was approved for the uni-
lateral cessation by the Soviet Union of tests of all types of atomic
and hydrogen arms.
At the meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of the states
participating in the Warsaw Treaty, which took place at the end of
:May in Moscow, a decision was made concerning the withdrawal at a
very early date from the Rumanian Peoples Republic of the Soviet
armies which were there in conformity with that treaty and also con-
cerning an additional reduction of the Soviet armies stationed in the
territory of the Hungarian Peoples Republic.
Desiring to weaken the split appearing between the two basic group-
ings of powers in Europe which are in military conflict and to exclude
the danger of the growing contradictions between them, the partici-
pants in the meeting proposed the conclusion of a pact of non-
aggression between the member-states of the Warsaw Treaty and the
member-states of the North Atlantic Alliance. The Soviet Govern-
ment is convinced that the conclusion of such a pact of non-aggression
would be a reliable preventive measure, strengthening the peace in
Europe.
In spite of the tremendous positive role of such a pact of non-
aggression, it is impossible, however, not to take into consideration
that this measure represents only an initial step, the minimum, that it
is necessary to undertake under present conditions for the purpose of
establishing in Europe an atmosphere of due trust among states. It
would be an unforgivable omission if, along with this, no effort was
made to establish additional transitional steps from the present dan-
gerous situation toward the establishment of the conditions of a firm
peace in Europe.
The Soviet Government proceeds from the assumption that peace
and security in Europe cannot be secured without the uniting of the
efforts of all European states and the establishment among them of
wide, all-inclusive cooperation. The experience at hand in regulating
important international questions testifies that with good will on all
sides posffibiities and reserves can always be found for mutually
acceptable decisions in aid of peace. Thus, in the first postwar years
peace treaties were concluded with Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary,
Italy, and Finland, which to a significant degree contributed to the
normalization of the position in Europe. Even more convincing testi-
mony of this is the signature by the states in 1955, even under condi-
tion of "cold war" and sharpened mistrust, of the Austian state
treaty,
which reestablished the political and economic independence of
Austria, as a neutral state.
;294