86. Memorandum of Conversation1
PARTICIPANTS
-
US Side
- The President
- Secretary Shultz
- Mr. Parris
- Mr. Zarechnak (Interpreter)
-
Soviet Side
- The General Secretary
- Foreign Minister Shevardnadze
- Mr. Uspenskiy
- Mr. Paleschenky (Interpreter)
[Omitted here is information not related to human rights.]
Gorbachev said that that was the case. He suggested the two devote a few minutes to humanitarian and regional questions, which, he pointed out, had been discussed by the second (non-arms control) working group. The President agreed, and the two briefly reviewed papers prepared by the working group the night before.2
The President asked to make a few comments on human rights. He had no intention of saying publicly that he had demanded anything from Gorbachev in terms of such issues as family reunification and religious persecution. But he did want to urge Gorbachev to move forward in this area, since it was a major factor domestically in limiting how far the President could go in cooperation with the Soviet Union. As he had told Gorbachev before, one in every eight people in the United States had family connections of some sort to the Soviet Union, so a significant part of the American population was concerned by such phenomena as the shut-down in emigration from the Soviet Union. We would continue to provide lists of people we had reason to believe wanted to depart. And if the Soviets loosened up, we would not exploit it. We would simply express our appreciation.
Gorbachev expressed regret that there was not more time to address humanitarian questions. There were some specific concerns he had wanted to put before the President. And he wanted to make clear that Soviet public opinion was also concerned about the state of human rights in the United States.
[Omitted here is information unrelated to human rights.]