Helsinki Accords

Helsinki Final Act
Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe Final Act
The front page of the Helsinki Accords
Host country Finland
Date30 July – 1 August 1975
Venue(s)Finlandia Hall
CitiesHelsinki
Participants Helmut Schmidt
Erich Honecker
Gerald Ford
Bruno Kreisky
Leo Tindemans
Todor Zhivkov
Pierre Trudeau
Makarios III
Anker Jørgensen
Carlos Arias Navarro
Urho Kekkonen
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
Harold Wilson
Konstantinos Karamanlis
János Kádár
Liam Cosgrave
Geir Hallgrímsson
Aldo Moro
Walter Kieber
Gaston Thorn
Dom Mintoff
André Saint-Mleux
Trygve Bratteli
Joop den Uyl
Edward Gierek
Francisco da Costa Gomes
Nicolae Ceaușescu
Gian Luigi Berti
Agostino Casaroli
Olof Palme
Pierre Graber
Gustáv Husák
Süleyman Demirel
Leonid Brezhnev
Josip Broz Tito
PrecedesParis Charter
Chancellor of Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) Helmut Schmidt, Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) Erich Honecker, US president Gerald Ford and Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky
From left is Kissinger, Brezhnev, Ford, and Gromyko outside of the American Embassy, Helsinki, Finland, 1975.

The Helsinki Final Act, also known as Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration, was the document signed at the closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland, between 30 July and 1 August 1975, following two years of negotiations known as the Helsinki Process.[1] All then-existing European countries except Andorra and Hoxhaist Albania, as well as the United States and Canada (altogether 35 participating states), signed the Final Act in an attempt to improve the détente between the East and the West. The Helsinki Accords, however, were not binding as they did not have treaty status that would have to be ratified by parliaments.[2] Sometimes the term "Helsinki pact(s)" was also used unofficially.[3]

  1. ^ https://www.csce.gov/sites/helsinkicommission.house.gov/files/The%20Helsinki%20Process%20Four%20Decade%20Overview.pdf Archived 2021-08-26 at the Wayback Machine [bare URL PDF]
  2. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. Helsinki Accords. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/260615/Helsinki-Accords
  3. ^ "Helsinki pact: A three-way battle in Madrid". Christian Science Monitor. 9 September 1980.