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Article: East Germany to Reduce Its Armed Forces; H onecker Urges Other European States to Consider Similar Cuts
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 24, 1989
- Author:
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East Germany, following the Soviet Union's recent lead in
announcing unilateral cuts in conventional forces, said today that it
will reduce its armed forces by 10,000 troops and trim defense
spending by 10 percent by 1990.
East German chief of state Erich Honecker, who announced the
planned cutbacks at a dinner honoring Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar
Carlsson in East Berlin, invited other European countries to view the
measures as "an impulse worth reflecting on."
Six hundred tanks, from six tank regiments, are to be dismantled
or refitted for civilian use, Honecker said. One squadron of 50
combat aircraft is to be disbanded and the planes taken out of
service, he said. The East German ...