Reykjavík Summit Reykjavík Summit The Reykjavík Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in Höfði in Reykjavík, on 11–12 October 1986. The talks collapsed at the last minute, but the progress that had been achieved eventually resulted in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1986, Gorbachev had proposed banning all ballistic missiles, but Reagan wanted to continue research on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which involved the militarization of outer space. Yet Soviet suspicion of SDI
Mikhail Gorbachev Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, saying the move "is not the work of a great mind." Gorbachev also said that "all agreements aimed at nuclear disarmament and the limitation of nuclear weapons must be preserved for the sake of life on Earth." Gorbachev signed the U.S.-Soviet nuclear disarmament treaty in 1987 with President Ronald Reagan. Gorbachev hailed the George H.W. Bush’s role in helping end the Cold War following the news of the former President's death, saying: "We had a chance to work together during the years of tremendous changes. It was a dramatic time that demanded great responsibility from everyone.