Duarte's Big Willkommen

EL SALVADOR

For Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte, the trip was both a diplomatic triumph and a personal vindication. Making his first tour of Western Europe since his victory in the May 6 elections, Duarte was greeted warmly in West Germany last week, met with cordiality in Paris, and invited to visit Britain, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Ireland. That marked a decided change in attitude by the West Europeans, who have long shunned El Salvador as a chronic human rights violator. So bad were relations that in 1979 West Germany suspended aid to El Salvador, and in 1980 the European Community cut off its milk donations to the country.

In Bonn, Duarte lunched with a fellow Christian Democrat, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and a $17.8 million foreign-aid program was signed. In Paris, Duarte met with French President Franc,ois Mitterrand, whose government recognizes El Salvador's Marxist-led guerrillas as a "representative political force." Afterward, Duarte announced that the French embassy in El Salvador will reopen after being closed for five years. Said Duarte: "French policy has not changed. The situation in El Salvador has changed, especially after my election."