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Both Gorbachev's desire to shape a new foreign policy and so bring to an end the Second Cold War, and the fact that Reagan's approach began to moderate at the same time, enabled the processes of negotiation to progress. In particular, it was agreed to resume the arms-control negotiations, which had ended after the Soviet Union walked out in November 1983. However, Gorbachev was quick to take steps to push the pace. In April 1985, he froze further deployments of the ss-20s; in August he declared a temporary halt to Soviet underground nuclear testing; in September he proposed that the USSR and the US reduce all strategic nuclear weapons stocks by 50%, and in October, he announced plans for a reduction in the number of Soviet missiles in Eastern Europe. Over the next three years, four US-Soviet summits on arms control. took place

Mikhail Gorbachev's election as general secretary of the CPSU in March 1985 turned out to be the beginning of the end of the Cold War-and, as it turned out, the end of the Soviet Union itself. Gorbachev is reported to have said, just before taking over as general secretary, we can't go on living like this'. As the youngest and the first university-educated leader since Stalin to hold this position, it was unlikely that social and economic, political and foreign policies would remain the same. Gorbachev had ties to the Soviet military élite and had grown close to reform-minded few importance experts. These experts tended to stress the of local issues over global ideological consideration Part of Gorbachev's new approach thus involved rethinking Soviet priorities and removing "Marxist-Leninist' i as the main factor in determining Soviet foreign policy. According to one of his closest aides, Gorbachev changed his ideas about international relations early in 1986. Though the collapse of the USSR does not seem to have been Gorbachev's intention, he certainly did set out deliberately to end the Cold War. Gorbachev's main concern was to end the stagnation of the Soviet economy, then to revitalise it, and to ensure the security of the Soviet system. He realised that the financial burden of maintaining the military power of the USSR was too great, and that its effect on the Soviet economy and on the living standards of consumers would ultimately undermine Soviet security. He also calculated that the USA's huge budget deficit meant that it too could not maintain its increased defence expenditure for much longer. He thus calculated that it might be possible to prevent Reagan from developing his SDI project by initiating new round of arms-reduction talks.

What made Gorbachev different?
While Gorbachev's domestic policy was shaped by his three policies of glasnost and demokratizatsiya, he also applied another policy to foreign affairs, known as "Novoe Myshlenie',or NewThinking. Gorbachev's NewThinking argued that confrontation was counterproductive, and that continuing the arms race was pointless, as one side's advance was simply matched or even bettered by the other. He also believed that only political accommodation, not military power, would enable problems to be solved and real security achieved. part of this approach, he decided to state publicly what had, in fact, long been the reality of Soviet foreign policy: that the ideology and language of class war should not shape the Soviet Union's diplomacy. While New Thinking contained elements of traditional Soviet foreign policy such aiming peaceful coexistence and détente with the West, Gorbachev's new policy was also markedly different. In particular, he dropped the dual-track policy of peaceful coexistence as a way of ensuring Soviet security and the peaceful long-term victory of socialism across the world. Gorbachev's stated aim now was simply Soviet security Khrushchev's idea of a peaceful but competitive coexistence was clearly abandoned. Gorbachev's new approach was signalled by his appointment of Eduard Shevardnadze as foreign minister. At his first Central Committee meeting in April 1985, Gorbachev announced his wish to reopen talks and the need to withdraw Soviet troops from Afghanistan. He also spoke of what he called "reasonable sufficiency an early indication of his belief that the arms race need not continue, as all that was needed was the military capacity to threaten an effective counter In particular, unlike the previous Soviet leadership, he was prepared to consider seriously Reagan Zero proposal, which suggested the removal of all intermediate-range missiles from Europe. This was a clear rejection of the policy parity followed of by Brezhnev. However, while Gorbachev's ideas and approach made him extremely popular abroad, caused growing criticism from more conservative quarters within the Soviet Union itself.

The first summit and it took place in November 1985.
Although there were no significant agreement it was the first summit with this purpose between the two superpowers for 6 years.
Reagan wanted to reduce the ICBMs in USSR but they were still scared of the “star wars” program.
Gorbachev however purposed multiple peaceful agreement during and after the treaty, these include:
A declaration between USSR and USA that they would never be the first to launch a nuclear attack.
USA, Reagan, wanted to still have the nuclear option.
In january 1986, he purposed the total elimination of nuclear weapons by the end of the century.
Other treaties followed and he eventually proposed a withdrawal of tactical nukes in Europe.
Lastly in April 1986 he proposed a reduction in NATO and Warsaw pact forces.

The second Reagan-Gorbachev summit, which took place in Reykjavik in October 1986, was predictably not as a good-natured as Geneva had been once again, the USA's Strategic Defence Initiative was the main item of contention. At first, Gorbachev tried to move the talks from consideration of reductions and limitations to complete nuclear disarmament, and Reagan called for the complete elimination of all ballistic nuclear missiles within ten years. Soviet leaders realized that their ailing economy would not withstand the strain of attempting to keep up with the technological advances of the US. The agreement was reached in principle that strategic nuclear weapons should be cut by 50% and that medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe should be withdrawn. However, arguments about SDI finally caused the summit break up as Reagan refused to abandon SDI, while Gorbachev said further reductions could not happen without this step. As a consequence, no actual agreements were made, and so it seemed a deadlock had been reached. Nonetheless, Gorbachev described the summit as an "intellectual breakthrough' in relations between the USSR and the USA. This deadlock was broken by Gorbachev in February 1987, when he offered to accept the NATO policy of the zero-zero option on the deployment of SS-20s and Pershing and Cruise missiles in Europe. In essence, this meant that both sides would withdraw their missiles. Gorbachev's acceptance of NATO's terms was a complete reversal of what had been a Soviet policy on this issue for ten years. It was a huge concession by the Soviet Union, and Gorbachev's critics in the USSR saw this as a dangerous surrender. In November, Gorbachev acknowledged that human rights needed to be improved in the Soviet bloc and that the "Iron Curtain' should be lifted. He also spoke of the need to avoid superpower confrontation in the Developing world.

As a result of Gorbachev's offer, a third summit meeting took place, in Washington in December 1 This resulted in the signing of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which agreed that all land-based intermediate- and shorter-range nuclear missiles would be withdrawn from Europe. This was the first arms agreement to be signed since 1979; it was also unique never before had arms-reduction talks led to the elimination of an entire category of nuclear weapons The INF Treaty was also historically important as, for the first time in arms control agreements, the two sides accepted verification procedures, which included access to data and the witnessing of weapons destruction. Thus the arms race was not just slowed down by the INF Treaty, but was actually reversed At this stage, there were signs that the Cold War would end via a mutually agreed settlement.

the next summit meeting took place in Moscow in May 1988. Prior to this, The next summit Gorbachev had ken another step towards easing tensions between East and West by announcing that the Soviet Union would withdraw its forces from Afghanistan with insisting on any guarantees on the type of government which might come to power in that country. This had long been insisted on by the US, and had been resisted by previous Soviet leaders including Gorbachev himself at first. By April 1988, an international conference in Geneva had resulted in an greement to end all foreign invol vement in the Afghan war. Gorbachev even hinted that Soviet troops might soon be withdrawn from Eastern Europe. By February 1989, after almost ten years of fighting, the last units of the Red Army had left Afghanistan Despite this, the Moscow summit achieved little as, once again, arguments about the Star Wars project blocked any agreement on the reduction strategic nuclear weapons. then, however, Gorbachev had effectively destroyed Reagan's attempt to depict the Soviet Union as an "evil empire, and Reagan himself had stated publicly that his earlier view of the USSR had changed, saying that the phrase belonged to another time, another era'. However, vice- president Bush commented that "the Cold War is not over fact, Gorbachev was soon scoring higher in Us opinion polls than politicians. What became known as "Gorbimania' hit Western Europe, as people responded to his attempts to end the arms race and his talk of a common European home

This new Soviet policy of non-intervention was the result of combination of Gorbachev's belief in democracy and his recognition that the Soviet Union was politically unable to intervene, The collapse of the Soviet bloc was a clear indication of the serious decline of the USSR, both internally and externally, the end of the 1980s. In fact, all these Eastern European states had been heavily in debt to the Soviet Union, thus adding to its own economic problems. Most commentators welcomed these developments, but a small minority, while supporting the reforms, nonetheless urged caution. historian Eric for example, warned that the collapse of one-party regimes in Eastern Europe would not necessarily result in tolerant and popular regimes. In particular, he pointed out that before 1945, with the exception of Czechoslovakia, the governments in that area had been authoritarian and often racist, especially towards their Jewish, and the Sinti and Roma, minorities. He also commented that, as a condition for receiving loans from the West the new governments would be applying neo-capitalist policies in relatively backward economies, and this would cause great hardship for the majority of their populations. Both jobs and social services would be cut. However, the changes would also provide opportunities for a small minority to become very wealthy.

Poland, solidarity was legalised in January 1989 and in April it agreed package of economic reforms with the These included August to be held in which resulted in clear victory for 1989, the new Polish parliament elected the first prim minister to rule in Eastern Europe in over 40 years. The significant aspect these developments was that Gorbachev, in line with his earlier statements did not intervene to support the old communist regimes. The movements in the rest Eastern Europe were thus encouraged to continue their demands.

The one exception to these peaceful revolutions was Romania, where Nicolae Ceausescu, the country's leader, tried to use the security forces to crush demonstrators, on Christmas Eve, the US ambassador in Moscow signalled that there would be no objections if Gorbachev sent in Soviet troops to help Romanian army against Ceausescu This suggestion, and the Soviet refusal intervene, were significant indications that the Cold War was virtually Ceausescu and his wife tried to flee, but were arrested by the army, and were executed on Christmas Day 1989 More significantly, the Soviet Union had allowed the disappearance security belt which had been the foundation and main aim of its foreign policy since 1945, and which had played a large part in the start of the Cold War hardline communists in these Eastern European states, who had used a form of nationalism to bolster their regimes, soon found themselves outflanked overtaken by nationalists on the right, who began to stir up ethnic prejudices against minorities such as the Roma and the Sinti, and Jewish people.