Statesmen of yesteryear

This file photo shows American President George H.W. Bush meeting Maltese Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami at Castile in December 1989 before the seminal Malta Summit, during which Bush and the last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev put an end to the Cold War. Bush passed away yesterday at the age of 94 yesterday, the Summit’s 29th anniversary

The death of former US President George H.W. Bush was announced on Friday night in Texas, when 1 December had already dawned in Malta. He was 94 years of age. It is, coincidentally, the day of the 29th anniversary of the start of the Bush-Gorbachev Summit that was held in Malta and which saw the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new era of the relationship between the United States and Russia.

Bush Sr will be remembered for many things but he may perhaps be best remembered, in Europe at least, for the Malta Summit with Mikhail Gorbachev, which led to the cessation of Cold War hostilities once and for all.

The summit, held just a month after the Berlin Wall was famously dismantled brick by brick by a jubilant mob, marked the end of postWorld War II hostilities between the world’s superpowers. As a Soviet official remarked at the time, the summit had “buried the Cold War at the bottom of the Mediterranean” – where it rests to this day, presumably on the seabed somewhere between Marsaxlokk and Birzebbuga.

At the close of the talks, during a memorable press conference at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Gorbachev remarked: “The world is leaving one epoch and entering another. We are at the beginning of a long road to a lasting, peaceful era. The threat of force, mistrust, psychological and ideological struggle should all be things of the past.

“I assured the President of the United States that I will never start a hot war against the USA.”

Replying, Bush remarked from his podium placed alongside Gorbachev’s: “We can realise a lasting peace and transform the East-West relationship to one of enduring cooperation. That is the future that Chairman Gorbachev and I began right here in Malta.”

In a tweet yesterday, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion Carmelo Abela said: “We are deeply saddened to hear of the demise of former US President Bush: a patriot who believed that the US should lead the world as a positive force. At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with his family and the American people.”