This article, published in the Netherlands daily newspaper De Volkskrant on 4 November 1986, the day of the opening, in Vienna, of the Third CSCE Follow-up Meeting, gives an account of the Helsinki Process and comments on the context in which the negotiations will be conducted. The opening of the negotiations is marred by the failure of the Reykjavik Summit on nuclear disarmament, held from 10 to 12 October between the United States and the USSR.