Word: gorbachev
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...President was lunching on baked halibut in the residence on Friday, discussing arms control with top advisers, when Gorbachev's Ilyushin-62 jet arrived from Moscow--at the same time as the ceremonial opening of Iceland's parliament. It was bad advance work by Moscow, for it meant that neither Iceland's President nor Prime Minister could be there to greet the Soviet leader. He and his wife Raisa were met instead by Foreign Minister Matthias Matthiesen. "We told Moscow about the opening of the parliament," lamented a Soviet embassy vice-consul, "but they decided it was too late...
Unlike Reagan, Gorbachev paused to speak with reporters upon his arrival, reiterating Moscow's professed goal of eliminating nuclear weapons by the end of the century. Then, with a wave to the crowd, he and his wife were whisked away by car to the Georg Ots, the Soviet ship on which they stayed in Reykjavik harbor...
Reagan arrived at Hofdi house first on Saturday morning to be host at the opening session of the minisummit, coat-less in the strong seaside breeze and carrying a Manila folder. The Gorbachev limousine arrived a minute before schedule. When the General Secretary emerged from his car, Reagan was not at the door to meet him. Gorbachev glanced at his watch. A few seconds passed. As Gorbachev climbed the steps, the door suddenly swung open, and a slightly flustered Reagan stepped out to shake hands. Both looked at their watches, shrugged and smiled for the cameras...
...they posed in a reception area, Gorbachev told Reagan that Icelandic officials "tried to persuade me very convincingly that we must agree on something with you." Joked Gorbachev: "I asked them, 'Have you said the same words to the President when you met him?' and they assured me, 'Yes, in exactly the same words.' " Then the two men retired to small salon, where they were joined by two interpreters and a pair of notetakers...
...Gorbachev's gambit of reading off a new set of Soviet ideas and proposals caught Reagan by surprise. In Geneva, Gorbachev had spoken off the cuff; by reading from a long paper this time, he gave the impression that he was following detailed guidelines worked out within the Politburo. At the heart of his proposals was the Soviet view that there could be a deep reduction in offensive missiles if the U.S. would postpone SDI development. In a sense, this was a flip side of the State Department position that a sharp reduction in offensive weapons would logically require less...