Oh, I see. Baker offered things, asked whether Gorbachev would prefer this or that, Gorbachev didn't take him up on anything relevant, nothing came out of it. Nothing was signed in the end.
AIUI this is the kind of thing that Congress could do, but Baker (the US Secretary of State) could not.
Standard negotiations really — a minister or another member of the executive negotiates with someone and eventually takes a text to a parliament, and in the end that parliament either ratifies the text or doesn't. There's no promise until the relevant parliaments have promised, because the executive does not have that power. The legislature has that power.
AIUI this is the kind of thing that Congress could do, but Baker (the US Secretary of State) could not.
Standard negotiations really — a minister or another member of the executive negotiates with someone and eventually takes a text to a parliament, and in the end that parliament either ratifies the text or doesn't. There's no promise until the relevant parliaments have promised, because the executive does not have that power. The legislature has that power.