n 3 December 1989, aboard the Soviet cruise ship Maxim Gorky docked off Malta, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George HW Bush declared an end to the Cold War, marking a historic thaw in the decades-long geopolitical standoff.
The leaders, acknowledging the transformative events sweeping Eastern Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall just weeks earlier, signalled a shared commitment to peace and cooperation.
This symbolic moment underscored the profound shift from antagonism to diplomacy, with Gorbachev famously stating, “The world is leaving one epoch and entering another.”
