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| Malta Summit | |
|---|---|
 Gorbachev and Bush about to share a meal on board the Soviet cruise shipMaksim Gorkiy | |
| Host country |  Malta |
| Date | December 2–3, 1989 |
| Venue(s) | Maksim Gorkiy |
| Cities | Birżebbuġa |
| Participants | |
| Follows | Governors Island Summit |
| Precedes | Helsinki Summit (1990) |
| ||
|---|---|---|
Presidency Foreign policy Post-leadership  .svg) | ||
TheMalta Summit was a meeting betweenUnited States PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush andSoviet General SecretaryMikhail Gorbachev on December 2–3, 1989, just a few weeks after thefall of the Berlin Wall. It followed a meeting that includedRonald Reagan in New York in December 1988. During the summit, Bush and Gorbachev declared an end to theCold War, 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 sinceWorld War II, when British prime ministerWinston Churchill, Soviet General SecretaryJoseph Stalin and US PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt agreed on apost-war plan for Europe at theYalta Conference.
Brent Scowcroft 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 PresidentFrançois Mitterrand, British Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher, other European leaders, and key members of theUnited States Congress prevailed upon President Bush to meet with Chairman Gorbachev.[1]
No agreements were signed at the Malta Summit. Its main purpose was to provide the twosuperpowers, theUnited States and theSoviet Union, with an opportunity to discuss the rapid changes taking place in Europe with the lifting of theIron Curtain, which had separated theEastern Bloc fromWestern Europe for four decades. The summit is viewed by some observers as the official end of theCold War. 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'sperestroika 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 theBerlin Wall. It was gathered on a presidential mission in which two pilots and four soldiers with sledgehammers were sent to Berlin where 180 kilograms (400 lb) were collected; 90 kilograms (200 lb) were given to the President and 90 kilograms (200 lb) given to members of the 207th Aviation Company.
Speaking at a joint news conference, the Soviet leader announced:
The world is leaving one epoch and entering another. We are at the beginning of a long road to a lasting, peaceful era. The threat of force, mistrust, psychological and ideological struggle should all be things of the past.
I assured the President of the United States that I will never start a hot war against the USA.
In reply, President Bush said:
We can realise a lasting peace and transform the East-West relationship to one of enduring co-operation. That is the future that Chairman Gorbachev and I began right here in Malta.
Also present at the Malta Summit were:
Soviet delegation
U.S. delegation
The meetings took place in theMediterranean, off the island ofMalta. The Soviet delegation used the missile cruiserSlava,[2][3][4] while the US delegation had their sleeping quarters aboardUSS Belknap.[2][3][4] The ships were anchored in aroadstead off the coast ofMarsaxlokk. 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 aboardMaksim Gorkiy, a Sovietcruise ship chartered to West German tour companyPhoenix Reisen, which anchored in the harbor atMarsaxlokk.
The idea of a summit in the open sea is said to have been inspired largely by President Bush's fascination withWorld War II PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt's habit of meeting foreign leaders on board naval vessels.[5][6] The choice of Malta as a venue was the subject of considerable pre-summit haggling between the two superpowers. According toCondoleezza Rice:
... it took a long time to get it arranged, finding a place, a place that would not be ceremonial, a place where you didn't have to do a lot of other bilaterals. And fortunately—or unfortunately—they chose Malta, which turned out to be a really horrible place to be in December. Although the Maltese were wonderful, the weather was really bad.[1]
The choice of venue was also highly symbolic. TheMaltese Islands are strategically located at the geographic centre of theMediterranean Sea, where east meets west and north meets south. Consequently, Malta has a long history of domination by foreign powers. It served as aBritish naval base during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and suffered massive destruction during World War II. Malta declared its neutrality between the two superpowers in 1980, following the closure ofBritish military bases and theNorth 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):
Malta is a neutral state actively pursuing peace, security and social progress among all nations by adhering to a policy of non-alignment and refusing to participate in any military alliance.
On February 2, 1945, as theWar in Europe drew to a close, Malta was the venue for theMalta Conference, an equally significant meeting between US PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt andBritish Prime MinisterWinston Churchill prior to theirYalta meeting withJoseph Stalin. The Malta Summit of 1989 signaled a reversal of many of the decisions taken at the 1945Yalta Conference.
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