East Germany will establish diplomatic relations with Israel “before the summer,” the East German foreign minister, Markus Meckel, announced Wednesday.
He did not specify the level of diplomatic representation.
However, he said the East German diplomat soon to be stationed in Israel would operate out of the West German Embassy in Tel Aviv.
With the impending unification of the two German states, there is no need for a separate embassy, Meckel explained.
He and West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher have already discussed future diplomatic cooperation.
The two Germanys plan to merge their embassies abroad, and Israel may become the first country where this is done.
Meanwhile, the issue of reparations is being pursued.
East German diplomats reportedly have renewed contacts with their Israeli counterparts, to set a date for negotiations on that and other subjects.
Experts in Bonn and East Berlin believe East Germany will pay only a nominal amount of the reparations it has pledged to victims of Nazism before its monetary union with West Germany on July 2.
East Germany will then give up its sovereignty in financial matters and merge its currency with the deutschmark.
East Berlin announced Monday that it would contribute $3.65 million to AMCHA, an Israeli foundation that provides psychological care and aid to Holocaust survivors.
Although the grant is not being called reparations, the award represents the first gesture of East German aid to Holocaust victims. West Germany has awarded in excess of $47 billion in reparations since 1952.
An additional $59,000 would be allocated to help establish an East German branch of the foundation, which would serve the 400 registered Jews there.
That may well be the extent of East German payment to Nazi victims, except for making property available for an Israeli diplomatic mission in East Berlin.
According to diplomats here, former Jewish property will be given to Jewish groups or to Israel as part of a reparations agreement.
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