Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan: an unlikely friendship

High-profile summits forged a bond between the two leaders that helped ease Soviet-US tension

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, left, shakes hands with Ronald Reagan, the US president at the time, at the Geneva conference in November 1985. AP

Reagan and Gorbachev meet for the first time before summit talks at the villa Fleur D'Eau at Versoix near Geneva, Switzerland, on November 19, 1985. AP

Reagan and Gorbachev during their first summit in Geneva. Reuters

Reagan and Gorbachev at the first summit in Geneva. EPA

Gorbachev arrives at Keflavik Airport on October 9, 1986, in Reykjavik, Iceland, for several sessions of talks with Reagan. AP

Gorbachev and Reagan talk during their meeting in Reykjavik. AP

Reagan and Gorbachev during the summit in Reykjavik. Getty Images

As a supporter of the de-Stalinisation programmes of his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev, Gorbachev initiated numerous reforms during his tenure. EPA

Reagan and Gorbachev sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty at the White House in Washington on December 8, 1987. Reuters

Gorbachev and Reagan sign the treaty, which eliminated US and Soviet intermediate-range and shorter-range nuclear missiles. AFP

Reagan and Gorbachev exchange pens during the treaty-signing ceremony at the White House. AP

Gorbachev and Reagan share smiles after toasting each other during a dinner hosted at the Soviet embassy in Washington. AFP

FILE - U. S. President Ronald Reagan, right, talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev during arrival ceremonies at the White House where the superpowers begin their three-day summit talks in Washington, D. C. , Tuesday, Dec. 8, 1987. Russian news agencies are reporting that former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has died at 91. The Tass, RIA Novosti and Interfax news agencies cited the Central Clinical Hospital. (AP Photo / Boris Yurchenko, File)

Gorbachev and Reagan speak to the press in Washington on December 8, 1987. AP

Reagan and Gorbachev talk during a walk in Red Square in Moscow, the former Soviet Union, on May 31, 1988. AP

Reagan and Gorbachev don cowboy hats while enjoying a moment at Reagan's Rancho del Cielo, near Santa Barbara, California, in May 1992. AP

Reagan takes Gorbachev for a drive to tour the ranch. Reuters

Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, with Reagan and his wife, Nancy, at the ranch in the Santa Ynez Mountains. Reuters

Gorbachev pauses in front of Reagan's casket during his funeral in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, June 10, 2004. EPA

Ronald Reagan and his administration were sceptical of Mikhail Gorbachev when he became leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, but numerous high-profile meetings led to the development of a unique friendship between the two leaders that helped end the Cold War.

The former US president once bemoaned how he had struggled to develop relationships with Soviet leaders because “they kept dying on me”. But in Gorbachev, Reagan found a man different from his predecessors.

“It was General Secretary Gorbachev with whom President Reagan would finally have that long-sought opportunity to form a relationship which led to a lessening of tension between Washington and Moscow, and eventually to meaningful arms reduction,” said Fred Ryan, chairman of the board of the The Reagan Foundation and Institute.

A series of summits beginning in 1985 forged a personal connection between Reagan and Gorbachev, eventually culminating in an agreement on nuclear arms control.

The first meeting between the two leaders, in Geneva in 1985, was key for building trust, even though no major progress on nuclear disarmament was made.

“I did not know when I left for that meeting in Geneva, I would eventually call Mikhail Gorbachev a friend. I did not know what to expect,” Reagan later wrote in his autobiography.

Their 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended when arms control discussions broke down after Reagan refused to drop his Strategic Defensive Initiative — nicknamed the “Star Wars” programme.

Though the talks abruptly collapsed, the progress leading up to the summit resulted in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which marked the first time the US and Soviet Union agreed to reduce their nuclear arsenals.

Gorbachev himself credited the Reykjavik Summit as a turning point in the Cold War.

Subsequent summits in Moscow and Washington, along with dozens of letters exchanged between the two leaders, cemented the friendship between the actor-turned-politician and the communist stalwart.

Reagan used to delight in telling jokes about Soviet Russia, sometimes describing Gorbachev as having enjoyed the humour.

In his final year in office, Reagan said Gorbachev “deserves most of the credit” for the cooling of Soviet-US tension.