The arms-control negotiator who secured the INF Treaty and managed the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan
"Over two and a half years we brought the positions so close that we managed to sign a treaty on the complete elimination of the most modern weapons of that time. Thank God I had the chance to participate in that process — I'm very pleased about it." — on the 1987 INF Treaty
A Soviet and Russian diplomat who served as First Deputy Foreign Minister (1986–1990) under Eduard Shevardnadze, anchoring late Cold War Soviet diplomacy. As Ambassador to Afghanistan (1988–1989) during the troop withdrawal, he secured guarantees from mujahideen leaders that they would not fire on departing forces. As chief arms-control negotiator he helped deliver the 1987 INF Treaty eliminating intermediate-range nuclear missiles. His career spanned Chargé d'Affaires in Washington under Anatoly Dobrynin, ambassadorships to India and France, the last Soviet Permanent Representative to the UN, and Russia's first post-Soviet Ambassador to the United States (1994–1998). After retiring from diplomacy he served as UN Under-Secretary-General, coordinating the repatriation of Kuwaiti missing persons and property until his death.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1952–1963MFA posts: European Dept, International Organizations Dept, UN Mission
- 1966–1977Counsellor and Minister-Counsellor, Soviet Embassy, Washington; Chargé d'Affaires
- 1978–1983Ambassador to India
- 1983–1986Ambassador to France
- 1986–1990First Deputy Foreign Minister; chief arms-control negotiator (INF Treaty)
- 1988–1989Ambassador to Afghanistan; diplomacy of Soviet troop withdrawal
- 1990–1994Permanent Representative to the UN (USSR, then Russia)
- 1994–1998Ambassador to the United States
Related historical events
- 1979–1989The Soviet-Afghan WarAmbassador to Afghanistan who executed the withdrawal diplomacy on the groundAs First Deputy Foreign Minister and concurrent Ambassador to Afghanistan (1988–1989), he obtained guarantees from mujahideen leaders that they would not fire on withdrawing Soviet forces. He played a decisive role in securing a safe withdrawal, preventing large-scale bloodshed and a mass refugee outflow.
- 1985–1991Perestroika and Glasnostconcluded Afghan withdrawal diplomatically
- 1985–1989The New Thinking and the End of the Cold WarChief negotiator of the INF TreatyAs chief arms-control negotiator, he helped deliver the 1987 INF Treaty.
UN High-level Coordinator for Kuwaiti missing persons and property (2000–2007)
On 14 February 2000 Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Vorontsov High-level Coordinator under Security Council resolution 1284, adopted on 17 December 1999, which required Iraq to fulfil its obligations regarding the repatriation or return of all Kuwaiti and third-country nationals or their remains and the return of all Kuwaiti property seized during the invasion. The resolution asked the Secretary-General to report every four months on Iraq's compliance.
His mandate was to encourage and coordinate the efforts of all parties concerned and to keep the Council periodically informed; the actual investigation and exhumation of remains from Iraqi mass graves was conducted by Kuwaiti search and assessment teams. He met regularly with the relevant parties in the Middle East, New York and Geneva.
The issue dated to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990. After resolutions 686 and 687 set the terms of the ceasefire, the Tripartite Commission was created under International Committee of the Red Cross auspices to ascertain the fate of missing military personnel and civilians. Iraq, never having cooperated fully, withdrew from the Commission in December 1998; only in December 2002, under considerable diplomatic pressure, did it resume participation, and after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime the Coalition Provisional Authority continued cooperation with the Commission.
In August 2003 the Secretary-General, emphasising that the Tripartite Commission was the principal mechanism for resolving the issue, recommended that the Council might consider closing the Coordinator's mandate upon the next report that December. Kuwait conveyed its strong desire for the Council to continue following the issue and to extend the mandate; following that appeal the Council adopted a presidential statement deciding that the High-level Coordinator should continue his work while keeping the mandate under review. Progress remained limited: the Secretary-General's last report, in December 2005, recorded that no further remains of Kuwaiti and third-country nationals had been identified, and Kuwaiti search teams had been unable to enter Iraq because of security concerns. Vorontsov briefed the Council on the issue roughly three times a year.
He died in Moscow on 12 December 2007, just a few days after returning from Kuwait, where he had held consultations and prepared the Secretary-General's most recent report. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced his profound sadness at the death and praised Vorontsov's dedication and tireless effort on the Kuwait issue.