Geneva Summit

The Geneva Summit of 1985 was a meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. This summit was significant as it was the first time the two leaders met and discussed nuclear arms reductions. While no firm commitments were made, it paved the way for later agreements and contributed to the eventual end of the Cold War.1

The summit was part of ongoing arms-control negotiations, with the goal of exploring the possibility of limiting each country's strategic nuclear weapons. Gorbachev, implementing his reform programs of perestroika and glasnost, sought arms-limitation treaties to ensure national security while restructuring the Soviet economy. A key outcome of the Geneva summit was an agreement concerning the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.23