Helsinki Summit | |
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Host country | Finland |
Date | September 9, 1990 |
Venue(s) | Finlandia Hall |
Cities | Helsinki |
Participants | Mikhail Gorbachev George H. W. Bush |
Chair | President Mauno Koivisto |
Follows | Malta Summit |
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Former General Secretary of the CPSU Secretariate (1985–1991)
Presidency (1990–1991)
Foreign policy Post-leadership
Media gallery |
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The Helsinki Summit was a private, bilateral meeting between American President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that took place in Helsinki, Finland on September 9, 1990. Due to the vested interests of both the Soviet Union and the United States in the Gulf Crisis' resolution, August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was the primary topic of discussion for the leaders during the Helsinki Summit. The concerted efforts at easing American-Soviet tensions in the aftermath of the Cold War was another prominent topic, among other notable current events. At the summit's conclusion, Presidents Bush and Gorbachev produced a document of joint statements that illuminated the areas in which the leaders had committed to aligning their foreign policy goals. The summit was followed by a press conference wherein members of the media questioned Presidents Bush and Gorbachev about the content of their meeting and the justifications for their joint statements.
Some experts understand the Helsinki Summit to represent one step in a sequence of meetings and agreements starting in the 1980s whereby the diplomatic transition toward relatively cooperative US-Soviet relations set the stage for a future US-Russian relationship.[1]