Treaty of Moscow (1970)

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Treaty of Moscow
TypeBilateral treaty
Signed12 August 1970 (1970-08-12)
LocationMoscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Original
signatories
Ratifiers
  • Soviet Union
  • West Germany

The Treaty of Moscow was signed on 12 August 1970 between the Soviet Union and West Germany.[1][2] It was signed by Willy Brandt and Walter Scheel for West Germany's side and by Alexei Kosygin and Andrei Gromyko for the Soviet Union.

Description[edit]

In the 1970s, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik was a policy that "abandoned, at least for the time being, its claims with respect to German self-determination and reunification, recognising de facto the existence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Oder–Neisse line".[3]

Both sides expressed their ambition to strive for a normalisation of the relations between the European states while they kept international peace and to follow the guidelines of the Article 2 of the UN Charter.

The signees renounced the use of force and recognised the postwar borders, specifically, the Oder–Neisse line, which hived off a large portion of historical eastern Germany to Poland and the Soviet Union.

It also enshrined the division between East Germany and West Germany, thus contributing a valuable element of stability into the relationship between the two countries.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Notes of reply from the three Western Powers (11 August 1970) retrieved from the CVCE website.
  • Pierre, Andrew J. The Bonn-Moscow Treaty of 1970: Milestone or Mirage? Russian Review, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Jan., 1971), pp. 17–26
  • Фалин В. М. Без скидок на обстоятельства: Политические воспоминания. — М.: Республика: Современник, 1999. — 463 с.: ил. ISBN 5-250-02673-7

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ "The Moscow Treaty (12 August 1970)". University of Luxembourg. Archived from the original on 28 September 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  2. ^ Horst Pötzsch (2006). "Moskauer Vertrag". Deutsche Geschichte von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart (in German). Munich: OLZOG. p. 173. ISBN 3-7892-8157-3. OCLC 751019247.
  3. ^ The Federal Republic of Germany's Ostpolitik on CVCE website (Centre for European Studies).