Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany

The President welcomes the historic signing in Moscow this morning of the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany. Today's agreement settles the external aspects of the establishment of German unity and makes the achievement of a unified, free, and democratic Germany just a short step away. With formal unification scheduled for October 3, the way is now clear for creation of a united Germany, enjoying full sovereignty and remaining a full member of the North Atlantic alliance and the Western community of nations.

The treaty provides for the termination of the historic rights and responsibilities of the four wartime allies -- the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union -- for Berlin and for Germany as a whole, dating from wartime and early postwar agreements. It restores full sovereignty to Germany over all its territory, including Berlin, and confirms that the borders of the united Germany will be the frontiers of the current Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic. The Government of Poland has expressed its satisfaction with the treaty's resolution of the border issue.

Last October, before the dramatic opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, the President expressed his strong support for German unification and his full confidence in Germany's commitment to the Western alliance. The President is gratified that the United States was able to play a leading role in supporting the aspirations we have long shared with the German people for a Germany united in peace and freedom. Last February, the United States proposed that negotiations to resolve the external aspects of German unification be held among the Two Plus Four, the two Germanys together with the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Those negotiations are now complete, and we join the German people in looking forward to the unification of Germany and a continued close and fruitful relationship between our countries and peoples. The United States and Germany will be, as the President put it in his speech in Mainz of May of last year, "partners in leadership."