The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990 by foreign ministers Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Lothar de Maizière, Roland Dumas, Eduard Shevardnadze, Douglas Hurd and James Baker. The English, French, German and Russian texts are equally authentic. Depositary: the Government of the united Germany. Article 8: ratification by the united Germany. Entry into force on 15 March 1991, on deposit of the last instrument. It is not the internal Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990, nor the German–Polish Border Treaty of 14 November 1990.

Article 1: the united Germany comprises the FRG, the GDR and the whole of Berlin; its external borders are those of the two German states and become definitive on entry into force; no future territorial claims; a separate treaty with Poland is to confirm the existing border. Article 2: only peace shall emanate from German soil; weapons may be used only in accordance with the constitution and the UN Charter.

Article 3: reaffirmation of the renunciation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and of the Non-Proliferation Treaty; a personnel ceiling, as a framework, without deployment tables. Article 4: withdrawal of Soviet forces by the end of 1994. Article 5: until withdrawal, only German territorial-defence units in the GDR; afterwards, German alliance-assigned forces without nuclear-weapon carriers; foreign forces and nuclear weapons are not to be stationed there. Article 6: the right to belong to alliances is unaffected. Article 7: the Four Powers terminate their rights relating to Berlin and to Germany as a whole; full sovereignty follows.

The text consulted is the version published in the Bundesgesetzblatt, aligned with UNTS 29226. The Treaty does not mention NATO membership of other states. The preparatory meetings were Ottawa, Bonn, Berlin, Paris (with Poland) and Moscow.

Internal unification took place on 3 October 1990, before the Treaty’s force; full sovereignty is tied to Article 7 and to the deposit of ratifications.

Cover: the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, the venue of signature; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany; UNTS 29226 Two Plus Four Treaty.