Baker Gives Soviets Top Priority : Asks Congress for ‘Meeting of Minds’ Over <i> Perestroika</i>

WASHINGTON —  Secretary of State-designate James A. Baker III, appealing for “a kinder, gentler Congress,” said at his confirmation hearing today that the first order of business between the Republican Administration and Capitol Hill is a “meeting of our minds on how to proceed with a changing Soviet Union.”

In calling for a renewal of bipartisanship in foreign policy, Baker told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “Yes, this is an appeal for a kinder, gentler Congress.” He was the first of President-elect Bush’s Cabinet choices to start the confirmation process before the committee.

Baker also said that the United States cannot abandon the Contra rebels opposing Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government.

“We must stand by them until our mutual goals are achieved,” Baker said, adding that the United States must insist on protection for human rights not only in Nicaragua, but in El Salvador and other Central American nations as well.

He said the primary task of U.S. policy must be to make certain that the Soviets move toward positive changes.

“Our task is to arrange affairs so that whatever the outcome of perestroika, a more responsible, constructive Soviet policy will remain in Moscow’s interest,” Baker said.

Sketching a broad outline of the foreign policy goals of the incoming Administration, Baker said experience has shown that a bipartisan foreign policy is an indispensable ingredient of success as the nation faces the problems and turmoil of an increasingly complex world.

“Bipartisanship does not mean that we must always agree,” Baker said. “There are and always will be differences in approach and substance.

“But eventually we must proceed. And when we do, it is best that we do so together if we are to achieve the national interest.”

The first order of business between the Republican Administration and the Democratic-run Congress, he suggested, is a “meeting of our minds on how to proceed with a changing Soviet Union.”