Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles
Gorbachev and Reagan sign the INF Treaty.
Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan sign the INF Treaty.
TypeNuclear disarmament
Signed8 December 1987, 1:45 p.m.[1]
LocationWhite House, Washington, D.C., United States
Effective1 June 1988
ConditionRatification by the Soviet Union and United States
Expiration2 August 2019
Signatories
Parties Soviet Union
 United States
LanguagesEnglish and Russian
Text of the INF Treaty

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty)[a][b] was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union (and its successor state, the Russian Federation). US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the treaty on 8 December 1987.[1][2] The US Senate approved the treaty on 27 May 1988, and Reagan and Gorbachev ratified it on 1 June 1988.[2][3]

The INF Treaty banned all of the two nations' nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and missile launchers with ranges of 500–1,000 kilometers (310–620 mi) (short medium-range) and 1,000–5,500 km (620–3,420 mi) (intermediate-range). The treaty did not apply to air- or sea-launched missiles.[4][5] By May 1991, the nations had eliminated 2,692 missiles, followed by 10 years of on-site verification inspections.[6]

President Donald Trump announced on 20 October 2018 that he was withdrawing the US from the treaty due to Russian non-compliance,[7][8][9] stating that Russia had breached the treaty by developing and deploying an intermediate-range cruise missile known as the SSC-8 (Novator 9M729).[10][11] The Trump administration claimed another reason for the withdrawal was to counter a Chinese arms buildup in the Pacific, including within the South China Sea, as China was not a signatory to the treaty.[7][12][13] The US formally suspended the treaty on 1 February 2019,[14] and Russia did so on the following day in response.[15] The United States formally withdrew from the treaty on 2 August 2019.[16]

  1. ^ a b Garthoff, Raymond L. (1994). The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War. Brookings Institution. p. 326. ISBN 978-0-8157-3060-6. The reason for this precision of timing… was a mystery to almost everyone in both governments… Only much later did it become known that the time had been selected as propitious by Nancy Reagan's astrologer
  2. ^ a b "Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty)". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  3. ^ AP Archive. "Reagan And Gorbachev Meet, Reagan And Gorbachev Sign Ratification Instruments For INF Treaty". Archived from the original on 12 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ "INF Treaty". United States Department of State. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  5. ^ Kramer, Andrew E.; Specia, Megan (1 February 2019). "What Is the I.N.F. Treaty and Why Does It Matter?". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (2007). SIPRI Yearbook 2007: Armaments, Disarmament, and International Security. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 683. ISBN 978-0-19-923021-1.
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference nytleave was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Pengelly, Martin (20 October 2018). "Trump says US will withdraw from nuclear arms treaty with Russia". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  9. ^ "What the INF Treaty's Collapse Means for Nuclear Proliferation". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  10. ^ "9M729 (SSC-8)". Missile Threat. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  11. ^ Borger, Julian (2 October 2018). "US Nato envoy's threat to Russia: stop developing missile or we'll 'take it out'". Guardian News & Media Limited.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference trump was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference reutersleave was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "Pompeo announces suspension of nuclear arms treaty". CNN. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  15. ^ The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at a Glance, Arms Control Association, August 2019.
  16. ^ "INF nuclear treaty: US pulls out of Cold War-era pact with Russia". BBC News. 2 August 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.


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