United States presidential visits to Eastern Europe and Northern Asia

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Ten United States presidents have made presidential visits to Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. The first trip by an incumbent president to Eastern Europe was made by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, to the Soviet Union, and was an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. The first trip by an incumbent president to Northern Asia was made by Gerald Ford in 1974, also to the Soviet Union, and was an offshoot of U.S.–Soviet Détente during the Cold War. The first presidential visits to other Eastern European countries occurred during this era of easing geo-political tensions as well.

As of February 2023, 15 visits have been made to Russia (which is partially in Eastern Europe as well as the only country in Northern Asia), 16 to Poland, five to the Czech Republic, five to Romania, five to Ukraine, four to Hungary, two to Bulgaria, one to Belarus, and one to Slovakia. Additionally, six visits were made to the Soviet Union prior to its collapse. One visit was also made to Czechoslovakia prior to its dissolution. Moldova is the only Eastern European country which has not been visited by a sitting American president.

Table of visits[edit]

President Dates Countries Locations Key events
Franklin D. Roosevelt February 3–5, 1945  Soviet Union Yalta Attended the Yalta Conference with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[1]
Richard Nixon August 2–3, 1969  Romania Bucharest Official Visit. Met with General Secretary Nicolae Ceaușescu.[2]
May 22–30, 1972  Soviet Union Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv (Kiev) State Visit. Met with Premier Alexei Kosygin and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. Signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), and the U.S.–Soviet Incidents at Sea Agreement.[2]
May 31 – June 1, 1972  Poland Warsaw Official visit. Met with First Secretary Edward Gierek.[2]
June 27 – July 3, 1974  Soviet Union Moscow, Minsk, Oreanda Official Visit. Met with General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, President Nikolai Podgorny and Premier Alexei Kosygin. Signing of the Threshold Test Ban Treaty.[2]
Gerald Ford November 23–24, 1974 Vladivostok Met with General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and discussed limitations of strategic arms.[3]
July 28–29, 1975  Poland Warsaw,
Kraków 		Official visit. Met with First Secretary Edward Gierek.[3]
August 2–3, 1975  Romania Bucharest,
Sinaia 		Official Visit. Met with President Nicolae Ceaușescu.[3]
Jimmy Carter December 29–31, 1977  Poland Warsaw Official visit. Met with First Secretary Edward Gierek.[4]
Ronald Reagan May 29 – June 2, 1988  Soviet Union Moscow Met with General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. Exchanged ratifications of the INF Treaty.[5]
George H. W. Bush July 9–11, 1989  Poland Warsaw,
Gdańsk 		Met with government and Solidarity leaders. Addressed the National Assembly.[6]
July 11–13, 1989  Hungary Budapest Met with Hungarian officials. Delivered an address at Karl Marx University.[6]
November 17, 1990  Czechoslovakia Prague Attended ceremonies commemorating the first anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. Addressed the Federal Assembly.[6]
July 29 – August 1, 1991  Soviet Union Moscow, Kyiv Summit Meeting. Signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I). Addressed the Ukrainian Parliament.[6]
July 5, 1992  Poland Warsaw Met with President Lech Wałęsa. Attended a memorial service for former Prime Minister Ignacy Jan Paderewski.[6]
January 2–3, 1993  Russia Moscow Signed the START II Treaty.[6]
Bill Clinton January 11–12, 1994  Czech Republic Prague Met with the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.[7]
January 12, 1994  Ukraine Kyiv Met with President Leonid Kravchuk.[7]
January 12–15, 1994  Russia Moscow Met with President Boris Yeltsin and senior Russian officials. Signed nuclear disarmament agreement with Ukraine.[7]
January 15, 1994  Belarus Minsk Met with Chairman Stanislav Shushkevich.[7]
July 6–7, 1994  Poland Warsaw Addressed the Polish Parliament. Attended ceremonies commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.[7]
December 5, 1994  Hungary Budapest Attended CSCE Summit Meeting.[7]
May 9–11, 1995  Russia Moscow Summit meeting. Attended the 50th anniversary of VE Day ceremonies.[7]
May 11–12, 1995  Ukraine Kyiv State visit. Met with President Leonid Kuchma.[7]
January 13, 1996  Hungary Taszár Met with U.S. Armed Forces personnel.[7]
April 18–21, 1996  Russia Saint Petersburg,
Moscow 		Attended the G-7 summit on nuclear safety. Summit Meeting with President Boris Yeltsin.[7]
July 10–11, 1997  Poland Warsaw Met with President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and former President Lech Wałęsa.[7]
July 11, 1997  Romania Bucharest Met with President Emil Constantinescu and Romanian political leaders.[7]
September 1–3, 1998  Russia Moscow Summit meeting with President Boris Yeltsin.[7]
November 21–23, 1999  Bulgaria Sofia Met with President Petar Stoyanov and Prime Minister Ivan Kostov.[7]
June 3–5, 2000  Russia Moscow Summit meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Addressed the State Duma.[7]
June 5, 2000  Ukraine Kyiv Met with President Leonid Kuchma.[7]
George W. Bush June 15–16, 2001  Poland Warsaw State visit. Met with President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek.[8]
May 23–26, 2002  Russia Moscow,
Saint Petersburg 		Summit meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Signed Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty.[8]
November 19–22, 2002  Czech Republic Prague Attended the NATO and EAPC summit meetings.[8]
November 22, 2002  Russia St. Petersburg Met with President Vladimir Putin.[8]
November 23, 2002  Romania Bucharest Met with President Ion Iliescu.[8]
May 31, 2003  Poland Kraków,
Oświęcim 		Met with President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Prime Minister Leszek Miller. Visited Nazi-German Auschwitz concentration camp.[8]
May 31 – June 1, 2003  Russia St. Petersburg Met with President Vladimir Putin. Attended ceremonies commemorating the city's 300th anniversary.[8]
February 23–24, 2005  Slovakia Bratislava Attended the summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Also met with Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda.[8]
May 8–9, 2005  Russia Moscow Met with President Vladimir Putin. Attended the 60th anniversary of VE Day ceremonies.[8]
June 21–22, 2006  Hungary Budapest Met with President László Sólyom and Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány. Attended the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising.[8]
July 14–17, 2006  Russia St. Petersburg Attended the 32nd G8 summit. Met with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.[8]
November 15, 2006 Moscow Met with President Vladimir Putin.[8]
June 4–5, 2007  Czech Republic Prague Met with President Václav Klaus and Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek. Addressed Conference on Democracy and Security.[8]
June 8, 2007  Poland Gdańsk,
Jurata 		Met with President Lech Kaczyński.[8]
June 10–11, 2007  Bulgaria Sofia Met with President Georgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.[8]
April 1, 2008  Ukraine Kyiv Met with President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.[8]
April 2–4, 2008  Romania Bucharest Attended the NATO Summit Meeting.[8]
April 5–6, 2008  Russia Sochi Met with President Vladimir Putin and President-elect Dmitry Medvedev.[8]
Barack Obama April 4–5, 2009  Czech Republic Prague Attended the U.S.-EU Summit Meeting.[9] Met with Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek and President Václav Klaus. Delivered public speech on nuclear disarmament in Hradčany Square.[10]
July 6–9, 2009  Russia Moscow Met with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Delivered a commencement speech to the New Economic School.[9]
April 8, 2010  Czech Republic Prague Signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia. Also met with the Presidents of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, and Romania; and with the Prime Ministers of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.[9]
May 27–28, 2011  Poland Warsaw Met with President Bronisław Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk.[9] Laid wreath at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial. Visited the memorial to the victims of the Smolensk plane crash.[11]
September 4–6, 2013  Russia Saint Petersburg Attended the G-20 Summit Meeting.[9]
June 3–4, 2014  Poland Warsaw Met with President Bronisław Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Attended a Solidarity Dinner and a Freedom Day commemoration marking the 25th anniversary of democracy in Poland.[9]
July 8–9, 2016 Attended the NATO summit meeting. Met with President Andrzej Duda, European Council President (and former Polish Prime Minister) Donald Tusk, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss counterterrorism, and the Syrian refugee crisis.[12]
Donald Trump July 5–6, 2017 Met with President Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović,[13] and with the other Eastern European countries' leaders during the summit of Three Seas Initiative. Laid wreath at the Warsaw Uprising Monument and gave a speech.[14]
Joe Biden March 25–26, 2022 Met with President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
February 20–22, 2023 Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Warsaw President Biden flew to Rzeszow, then transferred to Przemysl and via train went to Kyiv, in Ukraine. After returning to Poland, he met with President Andrzej Duda and attended the Bucharest Nine (B9) where he delivered a speech marking the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
February 20, 2023  Ukraine Kyiv Met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Visited St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. Unannounced visit.[15]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Travels of President Franklin D. Roosevelt". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  2. ^ a b c d "Travels of President Richard M. Nixon". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  3. ^ a b c "Travels of President Gerald R. Ford". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  4. ^ "Travels of President Jimmy Carter". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  5. ^ "Travels of President Ronald Reagan". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Travels of President George H. W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Travels of President William J. Clinton". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Travels of President George W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  9. ^ a b c d e f "Travels of President Barack Obama". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  10. ^ "Obama promotes nuclear-free world". BBC. April 5, 2009. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
  11. ^ Sabochik, Katelyn (May 28, 2011). "Photos: President Obama in Poland". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved August 10, 2016 – via National Archives.
  12. ^ "Statement by the Press Secretary on the President's Travel to Poland and Spain". The White House Office of the Press Secretary. June 6, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  13. ^ "Readout of President Donald J. Trump's Meeting with President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic of Croatia". The White House Office of the Press Secretary. July 6, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  14. ^ "Remarks by President Trump to the People of Poland". The White House Office of the Press Secretary. July 6, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  15. ^ Humphrey, Andrew; Moloney, Marita (February 20, 2023). "Biden makes surprise visit to Kyiv ahead of Ukraine war anniversary". BBC News. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
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