[4] On June 12, 1989, General Secretary Gorbachev arrived in Bonn and held private talks with Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President Richard von Weizsäcker.
The following day, Kohl and Gorbachev signed a joint declaration supporting national self-determination, mutual reduction in nuclear and conventional forces, and a "Common European Home" in which Canada and the United States have a role.
He also stated that by appropriating Charles de Gaulle's "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals" geographical definition, Gorbachev was attempting to keep the Soviet Union presence prescribed.
He gave a speech the next day at the Rome City Council in which he sketched out the notion of the "Common European Home" as a commonwealth of sovereign and economically interdependent nations.
"[7] Ronald D. Asmus noted that "Gorbachev's vision of a Common European Home was predicated on the belief that reform in Eastern Europe could be controlled and that reformist communist parties would continue to play an important role in their countries' politics, including in the G.D.R.