A historic signing marathon: on 1 August 1975, the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was signed.
A historic signing marathon: on 1 August 1975, the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was signed. Wikimedia / National Archives and Records Administration

1 August 1975 – from Bern to Helsinki

Back in 1975, on Swiss National Day of all days, Switzerland’s president Pierre Graber signed the Helsinki Final Act (also known as the Helsinki Accords), concluding the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in the Finnish capital. It marked an easing of tensions in the midst of the Cold War.

Thomas Bürgisser

Thomas Bürgisser

Thomas Bürgisser is a historian at the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (Dodis) research centre.

Based on a Federal Charter dated 1 August 1291, the founding of the Confederacy was first celebrated on 1 August 1891 to mark the country’s 600th anniversary. While historians doubt that this document is actually Switzerland’s founding Charter, 1 August has been an official public holiday since 1994 and is a special date and occasion for extensive festivities, fireworks and speeches on Swiss political identity.
The 1 August is a highlight for many Swiss children. The national holiday is celebrated with paper lanterns and fireworks.
The 1 August is a highlight for many Swiss children. The national holiday is celebrated with paper lanterns and fireworks. Swiss National Museum / ASL
This date also marks another occasion: the signing of an important document in 1975 – not on Rütli meadow, but in a modern conference centre designed by Alvar Aalto, on the edge of Töölö Bay, in the heart of the Finnish capital Helsinki. It was there, exactly 50 years ago, on Swiss National Day, that Swiss President Pierre Graber was one of 35 heads of state and government to sign the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, or the CSCE Final Act.

The Tribune de Genève dubbed this date ‘one of the best Swiss National Days in ages’ in view of the ceremonial signing of the agreement, which the newspaper interpreted as a signal from the Federal Council of Switzerland’s greater openness to the world and involvement in foreign policy. The Helsinki Final Act is indeed a remarkable document. Getting the representatives of all European countries from East and West – including the Soviet Union and the United States and Canada – to come to the negotiating table, invoke shared values and undertake to adhere to the same rules in the middle of the Cold War was indeed no mean feat.
TV report on the CSCE Final Act, which was signed in Helsinki on 1 August 1975. YouTube / RBB
The idea of convening a pan-European security conference was first put forward by the USSR and the states of the Warsaw Pact in 1969. It was the era of the so-called ‘policy of détente’, when – following a confrontational phase of the Cold War in the early 1960s – the two superpowers began a rapprochement by establishing a direct communication channel between the White House and the Kremlin and embarking on negotiations to limit nuclear armament. The proposals initially aroused great suspicion in Switzerland. The Federal Council said that it was “not convinced of the sincerity of the Soviets’ desire for détente, and even less of their ability to make concessions.”

A foreign affairs working group set up by the Federal Council also suspected that Moscow’s proposal was primarily a propaganda exercise. They believed that Russia wanted to play peacemaker, cement the status quo in Eastern Europe, sow the seeds of discord among its rivals, and counteract an excessive concentration of economic power in the West. “Deep distrust is therefore justified,” warned diplomats. The subsequent months showed that despite all this scepticism, there was an overriding interest in the convening of a conference. Both in the West and in the East, governments hoped that discussing multilateral security issues would improve the situation on the Continent. The members of the European Community, NATO, and the neutral and non-aligned countries therefore put forward sometimes diverging demands, and even the Eastern Bloc appeared less intractable than expected.
Foreign minister Willy Spühler, here on a state visit to the King of Norway Olav V, was sceptical towards the proposals from Eastern Europe, like the rest of the Federal Council.
Foreign minister Willy Spühler, here on a state visit to the King of Norway Olav V, was sceptical towards the proposals from Eastern Europe, like the rest of the Federal Council. Swiss National Museum / ASL
The foreign affairs working group drew up a report in 1970 and presented it to the Federal Council, setting out the overall direction of Swiss interests. Swiss diplomacy proposed establishing a system of peaceful conflict resolution, building on Switzerland’s traditional role as a mediator in international conflicts. The promotion of human relations between East and West was also undoubtedly a matter that could be addressed through a Swiss initiative, it said. Moreover, there was a desire in Bern to enshrine Switzerland’s right to neutrality at the conference. And finally, as a sign of its availability to perform ‘good offices’, Switzerland offered Geneva as a potential venue for the negotiations.

After the initial declarations of intent from capitals across Europe, there followed two years of mutual exploratory talks and consultations spanning the whole continent. The Swiss foreign minister and his chief officials also took part in this round of visits, stepping up receptions of foreign officials in Bern and increasing their trips abroad to an almost unthinkable level by Swiss standards at the time. The most lively discussions took place with the other neutral states – as “views in Sweden and Austria largely align with our own”. But Swiss diplomats even found the novel exchange of ideas with the countries behind the Iron Curtain to be surprisingly fruitful.

Six months to put together a conference agenda

In November 1972, the multilateral preliminary negotiations finally got under way at the Dipoli congress centre near Helsinki. For six months, the 35 delegations carried out painstaking diplomatic work to compile the conference agenda and set out the organisational and content-related guidelines for the conduct of the main negotiations – including the central consensus principle. Once this phase was complete, the foreign ministers from the participating states met in the Finnish capital for the first time. Switzerland was represented by Federal Councillor Pierre Graber.
Photo of Federal Councillor Pierre Graber, taken in December 1971.
Photo of Federal Councillor Pierre Graber, taken in December 1971. e-pics
The main negotiations started in September 1973 and took place in various congress centres in Geneva. The substance of the negotiations was thematically bundled into four ‘baskets’. The first basket contained a Declaration of Principles on fundamental issues of sovereignty, relations between participating states, security policy considerations in the strict sense and confidence-building measures in the military sphere. The second was dedicated to cooperation between East and West in the fields of economic affairs, science, technology and the environment. The third basket focused on the ‘human dimension’ and was included in the negotiation package at the insistence of the western European countries. This was all about exchange and cooperation in humanitarian, cultural and educational matters and freedom of information. This was the cherry on the cake of the CSCE as there were major differences between the views of democratic countries and authoritarian states in terms of how they interpreted basic freedoms and human rights. Finally, the fourth basket was all about the follow-up to the CSCE.

Swiss influence on negotiations

Already in Dipoli and then again in Geneva, Switzerland played a key role behind the scenes. It carried out important mediation services together with the other neutral states Austria, Sweden and Finland – and from 1974 as the ‘N+N group’ of neutral and non-aligned states with Yugoslavia and the small states Cyprus, Malta, San Marino and Liechtenstein. Naturally, this always required a fundamental willingness to compromise on the part of the two superpowers. But when the discussions became so deadlocked that neither camp could put forward or accept compromises without losing face, proposals were brought forward via the N+N channel. At these key moments, the Swiss diplomats helped to unblock the negotiations and ultimately to reach an outcome that was acceptable to all.
Article from the Burgdorfer Tagblatt on the work of Switzerland in the CSCE negotiations in Geneva, September 1973.
Article from the Burgdorfer Tagblatt on the work of Switzerland in the CSCE negotiations in Geneva, September 1973. e-newspaperarchives
Following months of editing and wrangling over wording, the CSCE Final Act was finally ready to be signed in the summer of 1975. Broadly speaking, the main trade-off was the fact that the Soviet Union and its allies were able to assert their territorial sovereignty and the inviolability of their borders in the 80-page document, while the West managed to extract concessions from the Eastern Bloc on the respect of human rights. The path was then clear for the 1 August 1975 in Helsinki.

“This really is the first meeting of the heads of all nations in the European family”, exclaimed Swiss President Pierre Graber in his speech to the heads of state and government gathered in the Finlandia Hall on 30 July. He remarked that the results may at first have appeared modest and fallen short of expectations in some respects. “And yet! The mere fact that such sensitive issues can be addressed and discussed openly at diplomatic level between states with different political, economic and social systems, is in itself a positive thing. And the fact that the same countries were able to agree on texts, the very existence of which is no small achievement, is another reason for hope.”
Soviet head of state Leonid Brezhnev (centre) and US President Gerald Ford (right) raise their glasses to the signed CSCE Final Act. A photo that would not have been possible a few years earlier.
Soviet head of state Leonid Brezhnev (centre) and US President Gerald Ford (right) raise their glasses to the signed CSCE Final Act. A photo that would not have been possible a few years earlier. Wikimedia / National Archives and Records Administration
In fact, the Helsinki Final Act was not a legally binding instrument under international law, but a binding ‘code of conduct’ for the signatory states to shape intergovernmental relations on the Continent. However, as the only pan-European set of rules, it can be seen as the greatest achievement of European diplomacy during the Cold War. Despite all the tribulations, the CSCE remained a forum for dialogue between East and West up until the collapse of the Iron Curtain. At follow-up conferences, adherence to the Helsinki principles was reviewed and expanded upon. Following the democratic overturning of the communist regimes, the CSCE Special Summit was held in Paris in 1990 to establish the outcomes of the transition and usher in a new era of pan-European cooperation. Ultimately, at the organisation’s Budapest Summit in 1994, the CSCE was renamed the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Up until 2022, the OSCE consistently had a role to play in conflict situations. But Russia’s attack on Ukraine has left the legacy of Helsinki in tatters.

Switzerland, which was not a member of the UN or the European Community, was able to play a part in the CSCE process for the first time as an independent and roundly respected player on key issues, and help shape pan-European policy. The CSCE marked a move away from Swiss exceptionalism and therefore the beginning of a normalisation of Swiss foreign policy. In 1996 and 2014, Switzerland played a key role as OSCE Chair – and it is set to chair the organisation again in 2026.

Maybe one day the OSCE can again become an instrument for a pan-European security policy based on the sovereign equality of all states. In that case, the 1 August 1975 really would have been one of the best Swiss National Days ever.

Joint research

This text is the product of collaboration between the Swiss National Museum and the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (Dodis) research centre. Inspired by the 50th anniversary of the CSCE Helsinki Final Act and Switzerland's OSCE Chairmanship in 2026, Dodis is currently conducting research for two publications on the history of the CSCE/OSCE. The documents cited in the text and numerous other files on the subject are available online.

Published on: 01.08.2025

Modified on: 17.12.2025

URL: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2025/08/1-august-1975-from-bern-to-helsinki/

More of: 20th / 21st centuryPolitics

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