Helsinki, a Historic Bridge Between American and Russian Leaders

This is not the first time Helsinki has made history in the relations between the United States and Russia. This city, located at the southernmost point of Finland with over 1.2 million inhabitants, is the most populous city in Finland. In 1975, Leonid Brezhnev and Gerald Ford, leaders of the two countries, which at that time was the Soviet Union instead of the Russian Federation, signed the Helsinki Agreement along with 33 other countries to reduce Cold War tensions. The second time, about 15 years later, George H.W. Bush met with Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the former Soviet Union, in the Finnish capital to discuss Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Following that, the U.S. attacked Iraq. Seven years later, in 1997, Bill Clinton met with Boris Yeltsin in Helsinki and discussed NATO's expansion to Baltic countries. During this meeting, Bill Clinton invited Russia to join the G7, a group that became the G8 for several years and cut ties with Moscow after Russia's annexation of Crimea. However, Donald Trump, the current President of the United States, recently expressed his desire for Russia to rejoin this group. Finland declared its independence from Russia 101 years ago and has generally sought a neutral approach in relations between the West and Russia in recent decades. Although this country shares borders with Russia and Sweden to the west, it is a member of the European Union but has not joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).