The Malta Summit was a meeting between US President George H. W. Bush and

Soviet General Secretary The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...

on December 2–3, 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It followed a meeting that included

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

in New York in December 1988. During the summit, Bush and Gorbachev declared an end to the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

, although whether it was truly such is a matter of debate. News reports of the time referred to the Malta Summit as one of the most important since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, when British prime minister

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

, Soviet General Secretary

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed on a post-war plan for Europe at the

Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...

Summit highlights

Malta Summit - Bush_Gorbachev_Meeting_Monument

Brent Scowcroft Brent Scowcroft (; March 19, 1925August 6, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer who was a two-time United States National Security Advisor, first under U.S. President Gerald Ford and then under George H. W. Bush. He served as Military A ...

and other members of the US administration were initially concerned that the proposed Malta Summit would be "premature" and that it would generate high expectations but result in little more than Soviet grandstanding. However, French President François Mitterrand, British Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

, other European leaders, and key members of the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

prevailed upon President Bush to meet with Chairman Gorbachev."An Interview with Dr. Condoleezza Rice (17/12/97)"
/ref> No agreements were signed at the Malta Summit. Its main purpose was to provide the two

superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural ...

s, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, with an opportunity to discuss the rapid changes taking place in Europe with the lifting of the Iron Curtain, which had separated the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

from

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

for four decades. The summit is viewed by some observers as the official end of the

. At a minimum, it marked the lessening of tensions that were the hallmark of that era and signaled a major turning point in East-West relations. During the summit, President Bush expressed his support for Gorbachev's ''

perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

'' initiative and other reforms in the Communist bloc. At the summit, as a token, US President George Bush presented all participants of the conference a piece of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the gover ...

. It was gathered on a presidential mission in which two pilots and four soldiers with sledgehammers were sent to Berlin where were collected; were given to the President and given to members of the 207th Aviation Company. Speaking at a joint news conference, the Soviet leader announced: In reply, President Bush said:

Other participants

Also present at the Malta Summit were: Soviet delegation * Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Akhromeyev, military affairs adviser to Gorbachev * Alexander Bessmertnykh, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister * Anatoly Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador to the United States from 1962 to 1986 * Eduard Shevardnadze, Soviet Foreign Minister * Alexander Yakovlev, chief ideologist of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspape ...

(CPSU) and Chairman of the International Policy Commission of the CPSU Central Committee U.S. delegation * James Baker, U.S. Secretary of State *

Robert Blackwill Robert Dean Blackwill (born August 8, 1939)
is a retired

National Security Council * Jack F. Matlock, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union *

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Un ...

, then Director for Soviet and East European Affairs at the National Security Council *

, U.S. National Security Adviser * Raymond Seitz, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs * John H. Sununu, White House chief of staff * Margaret Tutwiler, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Spokeswoman of the Department * Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy * Robert Zoellick, Counselor of the Department of State

Venue: "From Yalta to Malta", and back

The meetings took place in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

, off the island of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. The Soviet delegation used the missile cruiser ''Slava'', while the US delegation had their sleeping quarters aboard . The ships were anchored in a roadstead off the coast of

Marsaxlokk Marsaxlokk () is a small, traditional fishing village in the South Eastern Region of Malta. It has a harbour, and is a tourist attraction known for its views, fishermen and history. As at March 2014, the village had a population of 3,534. The ...

. Stormy weather and choppy seas resulted in some meetings being cancelled or rescheduled, and gave rise to the moniker the "Seasick Summit" among international media. The meetings ultimately took place aboard ''Maksim Gorkiy'', a Soviet

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...

chartered to West German tour company

Phoenix Reisen Phoenix Reisen is a Germany-based travel agency that also operates a fleet of cruise ships. The company first entered the cruise business in 1988 by chartering the Soviet Union-owned cruise ship . History Phoenix Reisen first begun operating crui ...

, which anchored in the harbor at

. The idea of a summit in the open sea is said to have been inspired largely by President Bush's fascination with

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's habit of meeting foreign leaders on board naval vessels.James Baker, The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989-1992, Putnam (New York) 1995, p.169. The choice of Malta as a venue was the subject of considerable pre-summit haggling between the two superpowers. According to

: The choice of venue was also highly symbolic. The Maltese Islands are strategically located at the geographic centre of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

, where east meets west and north meets south. Consequently, Malta has a long history of domination by foreign powers. It served as a British naval base during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and suffered massive destruction during

. Malta declared its neutrality between the two superpowers in 1980, following the closure of British military bases and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Regional Headquarters ( CINCAFMED), previously located on Malta. Neutrality is entrenched in the Constitution of Malta, which provides as follows, at section 1(3): On February 2, 1945, as the War in Europe drew to a close, Malta was the venue for the Malta Conference, an equally significant meeting between US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister

prior to their Yalta meeting with

. The Malta Summit of 1989 signaled a reversal of many of the decisions taken at the 1945

Summit highlights

Other participants

Venue: "From Yalta to Malta", and back

See also

References

Further reading