Close gap between political words, deeds, Gorbachev tells forum

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said statesmen had a duty to breach a growing gulf between their words and deeds which heightened misunderstandings between nations.
     "We must overcome the breach which exists between words and deeds," Gorbachev told a meeting of the World Political Forum which he founded two years ago to foster and coordinate international contacts between politicians, scientists and religious and cultural bodies.
      Closing two days of talks in the southern Spanish city of Granada which he co-chaired with former UNESCO director general Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Gorbachev said global development was best served if leaders could "overcome the inertia of political thought and the paralysis of political will."
      Both men called on the European Union to respond to the challenge of immigration by "adjusting trade policies, investing in construction and development, while focusing on migrational flows and safeguarding peoples' cultural identities."
       At the same time, they said, Mediterranean-rim states should progressively "promote democratic values and human rights though freedom of expression and citizen participation."
      Gorbachev, 74, tried to reform the Soviet Union prior to its demise in 1991 by introducing greater openness and structural and economic reform.
       Although the Soviet Union collapsed amid opposition from hard-line Communists and more radical reformists alike, Gorbachev was credited with helping to end the Cold War and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Agence France Presse, December 10, 2005