Although the beginning of the 1980s saw renewed East-West tensions (marked by the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan and NATO's dual-track decision to station medium-range missiles), Chancellor Helmut Schmidt continued his efforts to draw the two German states closer together. To this end, he traveled to the GDR for a three-day visit in December 1981. In the photograph below, Erich Honecker, Chairman of the Council of State of the GDR and the Secretary General of the SED, welcomes Schmidt at Schönefeld airport in East Berlin.