Breakthrough on Berlin?

"In negotiations," Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko once observed, "it is the last 20 minutes that count." Last week there were strong rumors in Bonn that the four-power Berlin talks, now in their 17th month, might be approaching the 20-minute countdown. When the Big Four ambassadors meet this week in West Berlin's old Prussian High Court Building, they are expected to make it a marathon session that may last three days. Speculation was that they are ready to hammer out the last kinks in an "umbrella agreement" on the city's status. Such a breakthrough could not come at a more fitting moment: this week marks the tenth anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall.

Decisive Stage. Though U.S. and British diplomats cautioned last week against undue optimism, and warned that it might be October or even later before an agreement is reached, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt said in Sweden that the talks have reached a "decisive stage." There were also indications that the Soviet side was straightening out its signals. After last week's Crimean summit talks, where Berlin was a key topic, East German Communist Party Chief Erich Honecker flew to Moscow. There he conferred with Soviet Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev and Ambassador to East Germany Pyotr Abrasimov, the Soviet representative at the Berlin talks.

The pace of the talks has been steadily accelerating since May. Until then the Soviets had insisted that access routes to West Berlin, 110 miles inside East Germany, be worked out by Bonn and the East German regime--which none of the Allies recognize diplomatically. But in May Moscow agreed for the first time since the end of World War II to guarantee free access to and from West Berlin.

In return for this concession, West Germany and the Western Allies agreed to limit the Bonn government's presence in the city by barring certain official visits and meetings of the Bundestag (West Germany's national assembly).

Last Hurdle. After an overall agreement is worked out, West and East Germany will open direct talks on details relating to access to West Berlin--how checkpoints will operate, Autobahn and rail fees, procedures for searches. Then the whole package will go back to the Big Four for final approval.

The Soviet desire to speed up the Berlin negotiations has become increasingly evident. An agreement would clear the last remaining hurdle for their cherished European Security Conference, aimed at nailing down the status quo in Eastern Europe and getting international recognition for East Germany. It would accelerate the opening of NATO-Warsaw Pact talks on troop reductions in Central Europe. Finally, it would prompt Brandt to seek Bundestag ratification of the nonaggression treaties of Moscow and Warsaw, which have been delayed pending a Berlin agreement. Whether such a settlement happens this week or later, the talks have certainly come a long way since the days when Nikita Khrushchev declared that West Berlin was like a "cancerous growth" that ought to be cut out.

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