Hope and Reality: Poland and the Conference on Security and ...

economic cooperation up for discussion. But it soon appeared that <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rcountries did not submit <strong>the</strong>ir remarks to <strong>the</strong> Polish treaty. This was also a methodof slowing <strong>the</strong> process of discussing <strong>the</strong> inconvenient Polish draft. Warsaw wasaware of geopolitical realities <strong>and</strong> wanted to use opportunities that political <strong>and</strong>military organizations could provide in a divided world. Thus it attempted toconvince <strong>the</strong> Soviet Union <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r bloc countries to agree that <strong>the</strong> treaty onSecurity <strong>and</strong> Cooperation in Europe would be presented as a Polish draft,supported by <strong>the</strong> whole bloc, expecting that this way it would be treated moreseriously in <strong>the</strong> West <strong>and</strong> have a better chance of becoming reality.On 30-31 October 1969, <strong>the</strong> foreign ministers met in Prague <strong>and</strong> accepted<strong>the</strong> documents prepared in Moscow. In an unofficial meeting, <strong>the</strong> issue of <strong>the</strong>territorial status quo was brought under discussion by Czechoslovak ForeignMinister Jan Marko. He suggested dealing with this issue in a tactical manner.Marko was supported by <strong>the</strong> Romanian Minister Corneliu Mănescu. The reactionof <strong>the</strong> Polish Minister Jędrychowski was “sharp,” as he described it, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rministers withdrew <strong>the</strong>ir suggestion to discuss <strong>the</strong> issue again. Never<strong>the</strong>less,during <strong>the</strong> plenary session, Marko mentioned that questions which would makestarting <strong>the</strong> conference more complicated should not have been placed into <strong>the</strong>agenda. 47 Finally <strong>the</strong> Moscow documents were accepted. The ministers alsodeveloped a formula concerning participation. They declared that <strong>the</strong>y would notoppose American or Canadian participation, but <strong>the</strong> participation of both Germanstates be a condition. The idea of creating a group of economists was supported by<strong>the</strong> Hungarians who proposed to organize a meeting in Budapest. It was decidedthat Hungary would present more specific ideas for <strong>the</strong> agenda <strong>and</strong> exact times fora meeting, so Jędrychowski felt that at least <strong>the</strong> Polish idea to discuss economicissues had been accepted. The Polish draft for <strong>the</strong> “Treaty on Security <strong>and</strong>Cooperation in Europe” was not discussed, as some countries said that <strong>the</strong>y46 Ibid.26