US-Soviet Incidents at Sea agreement is a 1972 bilateral agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union to reduce the chance of an incident at sea between the two countries and , in the event that one occurred , to prevent it from escalating . The United States proposed having talks on the agreement in 1968 , and the Soviet Union accepted . Talks were conducted in Moscow on October 11 , 1971 and in Washington DC on May 17 , 1972 . The final agreement was signed during the Moscow Summit on May 25 , 1972 , by United States Secretary of the Navy John Warner and Soviet Navy Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral of the Soviet Union Sergey Gorshkov
Moscow Summit
Moscow Summit (1972)
U.S.–Soviet Incidents at Sea agreement