Gorbachev: Anti-Terror Coalition

Should Become Coalition for New World Order

Saturday, October 20, 2001

AP and Fox News

MOSCOW — The U.S.-led international coalition against terror must become a coalition for a new and fair world order if it is to succeed, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said in an interview published Saturday.

"If the fight against terrorism is reduced to force actions, the world will eventually lose," Gorbachev told Rossiiskaya Gazeta. "If it becomes part of joint efforts to build a just world order, everybody shall win, including those who today are not supporting the U.S. actions and the coalition."

He urged politicians to remember the notions of solidarity and said developing nations must be helped to overcome poverty. The U.N. Security Council, he added, should take the initiative in developing corresponding programs.

Nuclear and chemical disarmament and control over the remaining stockpiles must become a top priority, he said.

Gorbachev also noted that despite Russia's strong support for the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan, many in his country are concerned about the bombings and question whether America would also back Russia in such an hour of need.

Such thorny issues as the expansion of NATO and the future of the U.S.-Soviet anti-missile agreement "would be easier to resolve when we have a joint strategy of moving to the new world community," Gorbachev wrote.

As Soviet leader, Gorbachev presided over the 1989 Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, which ended a humiliating 10-year involvement during which his country lost more than 15,000 soldiers.

He remains respected in the West for initiating the reforms in the former Soviet Union but is widely despised at home, where he is blamed for the Soviet collapse and the often chaotic years of transition.