Close gap between political words, deeds, Gorbachev tells forum

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2005

MADRID (AFP) — 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...