Le 9 mars 1990, François Mitterrand, président de la République française, tient au palais de l'Elysée à Paris, une conférence de presse conjointe avec le président du Conseil de l'État de Pologne, M. Jaruzelski, et le Premier ministre polonais, M. Mazowiecki, au cours de laquelle il revient sur le rôle crucial de l'intangibilité de la frontière germano-polonaise (ligne Oder/Neisse).

In his memoirs, François Mitterrand, former President of the French Republic, outlines the establishment, in 1990, of the ‘Two Plus Four' (2 + 4) Conference, attended by the two Germanys and the four Allied Powers signatory to the 1945 Potsdam Agreement, with a view to settling the international issue of German reunification.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Bundesminister des Auswärtigen, gibt zum Abschluß der Zwei-plus-Vier Konferenz am 5. Mai 1990 folgende zwischen den Außenministern der beiden deutschen Staaten, der USA, der UDSSR, Großbritanniens und Frankreichs abgesprochene Erklärung ab.

‘The reunification policy needed some explaining abroad.’ In 1990, commenting on the ‘Two Plus Four’ (2 + 4) Conference attended in Bonn by the two Germanys and the four Allied Powers signatory to the 1945 Potsdam Agreement — the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union — the German cartoonist, Walter Hanel, illustrates the efforts of Hans-Dietrich Genscher, West German Foreign Minister, to reassure the Western Allies and the Soviet Union of the definitive international status of the reunified Germany.

On 12 September 1990, in Moscow, the Four Allied Powers, signatories of the Potsdam Agreements in 1945 (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the USSR), and the two Germanys (the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany) sign the ‘Two Plus Four’ Treaty. From left to right: James Baker (USA), Douglas Hurd (United Kingdom), Eduard Shevardnadze (USSR), Roland Dumas (France), Lothar de Maizière (GDR) and Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FRG).

On 12 September 1990, in Moscow, the Four Powers, guarantors of the quadripartite status established in 1945, together with representatives of the two Germanys sign the ‘Two Plus Four’ Treaty on the Final Settlement with respect to Germany, sealing the definitive international status of reunified Germany. From left to right: Roland Dumas (France), Eduard Shevardnadze (USSR), James Baker (USA), Mikhail Gorbachev (USSR), Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FRG), Lothar de Maizière (GDR) and Douglas Hurd (United Kingdom).