United States presidential visits to Eastern Europe and Northern Asia

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

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 delivered a speech. [14]
Joe Biden	March 25–26, 2022			Met with President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Met Ukrainian refugees where he delivered a speech.
	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

• Foreign policy of the United States

References

1. "Travels of President Franklin D. Roosevelt". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
2. "Travels of President Richard M. Nixon". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
3. "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. "Travels of President George H. W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
7. "Travels of President William J. Clinton". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
8. "Travels of President George W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
9. "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.