The Message from Turnberry (also known as message of Turnberry or the Turnberry message)
was a message of 8 June 1990 sent by the
North Atlantic Council meeting on June 7–8 near the ruins of the
Turnberry Castle
Turnberry Castle is a fragmentary ruin on the coast of Kirkoswald parish, near Maybole in Ayrshire, Scotland.''Ordnance of Scotland'', ed. Francis H. Groome, 1892-6. Vol.6, p.454 Situated at the extremity of the lower peninsula within the parish ...
, Scotland, addressed "to 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 national ...
and to all other European countries"; effectively meaning the
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
(Warsaw Treaty Organization) and neutral European nations, offering "friendship and cooperation... to help build a new peaceful order in Europe, based on freedom, justice and democracy".
Background
The message was issued in the aftermath of the
Autumn of Nations
The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...
events in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
.
Around the same time, the Warsaw Pact was also holding their own meeting, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union would hold one in the near future, giving ample opportunity for the Communists to issue a reply.
The message has been called a success of the German diplomacy, in particular, German diplomat , on the path to
German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
.
Other notable supporters of this message included German Foreign Minister
Hans-Dietrich Genscher and American
Secretary of State James Baker.
Canada was also described as a vocal supporter of the message among the NATO parties.
Significance
The message, issued in addition to the normal NATO communiques, was quickly picked up by international media.
It has been called "exceptional", and the "first official recognition of the end of 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 the ...
",
a "hand of friendship",
as well as "the first step in the evolution of NATO-Russia relations". The message has also been described as laying down the foundations of NATO's modern partnership and outreach programmes.
It was followed a month later by the
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
's
1990 London summit which further declared that "USSR and Warsaw Pact are no longer enemies".
Also that month, the NATO Secretary General,
Manfred Wörner, visited Moscow to discuss future cooperation, a first for NATO–Russia relations.
The process of de-escalation would lead to the formation of the
Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in 1997.
See also
*
Post–Cold War era
*
Russia–NATO relations
References
{{reflist
External links
Message From Turnberry text on the official NATO website
1990 in Europe
History of NATO
Cold War
1990 documents
NATO relations
Foreign relations of the Soviet Union