1983 in international relations

Matts Dumell (born 1952) is a Swedish-speaking Finn journalist with a long career in TV-Production and Documentary film making in Public Service. He has been employed by Hufvudstadsbladet over several periods of time and he was one of the founders of the radio channel Radio Ykkönen. Matts Dumell has also published several books.

Dieter Felix Gerhardt (born 1 November 1935) is a former commodore in the South African Navy and commander of the strategic Simon's Town naval dockyard. He was arrested by the FBI in New York City in 1983 following information obtained from a Soviet defector. He was convicted of high treason as a spy for the Soviets for a period of twenty years in South Africa together with his second wife, Ruth, who had acted as his courier. Both were released prior to the change of government following the 1994 general election.

On 30 September 1983, a bomb detonated during an international fair at the Palais des Congrès (exhibition centre) in Marseille, France. One person died and 25 other people were injured in the attack, which happened near the American and Algerian stands.

Vitaly Shlykov (Russian: Виталий Васильевич Шлыков; 1934–2011) was a spymaster in the GRU, Russian deputy minister of defence and founder of the influential Council for Foreign and Defence Policy.

The 1983 Kuwait bombings were attacks on six key foreign and Kuwaiti installations on 12 December 1983, two months after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing. The 90-minute coordinated attack on two embassies, the country's main airport, and petro-chemical plant was more notable for the damage it was intended to cause than what was actually destroyed. What might have been "the worst terrorist episode of the twentieth century in the Middle East" killed only six people because of the bombs' faulty rigging.

Galip Balkar, Turkish ambassador to Yugoslavia, was assassinated on 9 March 1983 in downtown Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia. He died two days later as a consequence. The responsibility for the attack was taken by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG), an Armenian militant group.

The 9th G7 Summit was held at Williamsburg, Virginia, United States between May 28 and 30, 1983. The venue for the summit meetings was Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

The April 18, 1983, United States Embassy bombing was a suicide bombing on the Embassy of the United States in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 32 Lebanese, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors and passers-by. The victims were mostly embassy and CIA staff members, but also included several US soldiers and one U.S. Marine Security Guard. The attack came in the wake of an intervention in the Lebanese Civil War by the United States and other Western countries. The attacks were claimed by the Islamic Jihad Organization. The United States later believed they were perpetrated by Hezbollah, but Hezbollah denied responsibility.

On October 23, 1983, two truck bombs were detonated at buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War. The attack killed 307 people: 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel, six civilians, and two attackers.

The bombing of the French consulate in West Berlin was a terrorist bomb attack targeting the Maison de France consulate on the Kurfürstendamm in West Berlin, West Germany on 25 August 1983. It killed one person and injured 23 others. The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) claimed responsibility in a telephone call and also took credit for a bomb at a French base in Beirut the same day, coming a month after the group's Orly Airport attack. The group commented "We will continue our struggle until the liberation of innocent Armenians from French jails." However the attack was actually orchestrated by Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, who had relations with the ASALA's leadership. Carlos claimed responsibility in a letter written to the German Embassy in Saudi Arabia.