Moscow reminds the West of "intermediate-range nuclear missiles" .. a long history of non-proliferation treaties

In the midst of the recent escalation between Russia on the one hand and the United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the other hand, in light of the burning Ukrainian crisis, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov did not rule out the possibility that missiles previously banned under the Treaty on missiles would appear in Europe soon. medium range nuclear power.

A long history of treaties to limit the spread of arms that were signed between the United States of America and Russia (the former Soviet Union), we review the most prominent of them through the lines of this report.

1972.. Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union, to limit anti-ballistic missile systems used to defend against ballistic missile-borne nuclear weapons.

According to the terms of the treaty, each party is bound by two anti-ballistic missile systems, each with a limit of no more than 100 anti-ballistic missiles.

1972: The treaty was signed and was valid for 30 years.

1997: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States and 4 of the former Soviet republics agreed to continue the treaty.

2002: The United States withdrew from the treaty, leading to its termination.

1987.. Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

December 8, 1987: US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign a historic agreement that would lead to disarmament and end the Cold War.

May 27, 1988: The treaty is ratified by the US Congress.

June 1, 1988: The agreement entered into force.

The treaty obliges both parties to eliminate ballistic, nuclear or conventional missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,000 km.

A total of 2,962 missiles were destroyed. Under the treaty, the two powers pledged to avoid making more short and medium-range missiles.

2014: During the Ukraine crisis, the United States accused Russia of violating the terms of the treaty, and US officials held the Russians responsible for deploying banned SSC-8 missiles, which pose a threat to European countries, which Moscow denied.

February 2, 2019: The United States announced its exit from the agreement, accusing Russia of violating it, and Russia responded by announcing that it was suspending its commitment to the agreement.

1991.. START 1 Treaty

July 31, 1991: The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the Soviet Union) and included the largest bilateral reduction of nuclear weapons in history.

- Signed by US Presidents George HW Bush and Soviet Mikhail Gorbachev.

December 26, 1991: The implementation of the START 1 treaty was complicated and almost collapsed with the collapse of the Soviet Union, but Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan agreed to transfer their nuclear missiles to Russia.

December 5, 1994: The treaty enters into force.

The treaty prevents signatories from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads on a total of 1,600 ICBMs and bombers.

2001: Final implementation resulted in the elimination of about 80% of all strategic nuclear weapons in existence.

Proposed by US President Ronald Reagan, it was renamed "START I" after negotiations began on the Treaty of "START II".

December 5, 2009: START 1 expires.

2010.. "START 3/NEW START"

March 25, 2010: Moscow and Washington announced that they had reached a new agreement on strategic weapons after arduous negotiations that faced many obstacles, including Russia's insistence on including in the agreement a phrase explicitly referring to America's missile shield that it intends to deploy in Eastern Europe.

- Experts began developing the text of the treaty after the meeting of the two former presidents in the British capital, London, on the first of April 2009 (within the framework of the G-20 summit), and negotiations ended a year later with the signing of the document.

April 8, 2010: Washington and Moscow sign the START 3 treaty in the Czech capital, Prague.

Its official name: “Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms: New START.”

December 22, 2010: Approved by the US Senate.

January 25-26, 2011: ratified by the Russian State Duma.

January 26, 2011: Approved by the Council of the Russian Federation.

February 5, 2011: The treaty entered into force, and its duration is 10 years, ending in 2021.

The treaty stipulates that the two sides reduce their strategic nuclear offensive weapons, provided that their total quantities, after 7 years from its entry into force, do not exceed 700 warheads for ICBMs, ballistic missiles for submarines and heavy bombers, 1,550 nuclear warheads on them, and 800 units for bombers.

- START 3 also stipulates a ban on the deployment of strategic offensive weapons outside the territories of the two countries.

Each party has the right to decide independently the formation and structure of its strategic offensive weapons within the limits established by the treaty.

The treaty defines the difference in the relationship between strategic attack (nuclear weapons) and strategic defensive weapons (missile defense systems), in addition to prohibiting the conversion of ICBMs on submarines into launch systems to combat ballistic missiles and defensive intercepts.

Under the agreement, a bilateral advisory committee was formed to assist in the implementation of the objectives and provisions of the treaty.

The treaty gives the two countries the right to conduct coordinated inspections of the other's strategic weapons "wherever those weapons are located."

The inspections are divided into two types: the first type includes the inspection of facilities containing scattered strategic offensive weapons, such as missile bases and nuclear submarines, and the second type includes the inspection of places for loading, repairing and storing weapons, provided that the inspections do not exceed 18 operations annually, divided according to the treaty into 10 inspections of the type The first and 8 are of the second kind.

February 3, 2021: Russia and the United States announced the entry into force of the decision to extend the treaty for a period of 5 years, so that "START 3" will continue to be in force until February 5, 2026 in its original form without introducing any changes.

A phone call that took place between Russian President Vladimir Putin and American Joe Biden on January 26, 2021 played a major role in reaching this agreement.

Extension of the treaty provides for “guaranteeing the maintenance and continuity of a pivotal mechanism to support strategic stability and its continuity of operation on an equal basis to reduce the nuclear missile arsenals of both parties.”