Smiles, hugs and tensions: the story of eight meetings between Washington and Moscow, before the Trump-Putin summit
A decade after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the leaders of the United States and the then Soviet Union, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, had their first face-to-face meeting in the Iranian capital (along with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill) to begin preparing for a joint fight against Nazi Germany.
Yalta, 1945
In February, with the end of World War II approaching, the three leaders met again to discuss how to hasten its end. The meeting has also been interpreted as the beginning of the Cold War, after Stalin successfully persuaded the leaders of the two allied countries to establish "spheres of influence" in Eastern Europe.
Vienna, 1961
John F. Kennedy met with Nikita Khrushchev in the Austrian capital, and the talks were dominated by the crisis in Berlin and control of the divided city. "The worst thing in my life," Kennedy told a reporter after the negotiations. The Berlin Wall began to be built shortly thereafter, and the following year, the Cuban crisis occurred.
Moscow, 1972
Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev met in Moscow for their first summit, which produced an initial understanding of the limits on the two powers' rapidly expanding nuclear arsenals. The good relationship between the two continued in three consecutive meetings, leading to the signing of nuclear arms control treaties, such as SALT.
Vladivostok, 1974
Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, met with Brezhnev and the two quickly established a cordial relationship that culminated the following year in the Finnish capital with the signing of the Helsinki Accords – a declaration that demanded respect for human rights and the inviolability of European borders (which Putin undid with his invasion of Ukraine).
Reykjavik, 1986
After a first meeting in Geneva a year earlier, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev reached an agreement on how to control nuclear weapons and improve international relations after years of fierce rivalry. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty would be signed in Washington in 1987, leading to the destruction of 2,692 missiles by 1991.
Malta, 1989
George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev met just weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall to discuss the future relationship. This summit is often presented as one of the key moments in the end of the Cold War. At their final press conference aboard the Soviet ship Maxim Gorky, the two leaders announced that they had set the stage for major troop and arms reductions in Europe.
Helsinki, 1997
Bill Clinton met with Russian leader Boris Yeltsin at a time of heightened tension over NATO's expansion into former Soviet bloc countries. Yeltsin made it clear that he opposed expansion but agreed to negotiate a pact with the alliance. The two countries also agreed to a drastic reduction in their respective nuclear arsenals.
