 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Formal Title: 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
Summary:
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty is a bilateral agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union that requires destruction of the Parties' ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, their launchers and associated support structures and support equipment within three years after the INF Treaty enters into force.
On 8 December 1987, US President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev signed the treaty at a summit meeting in Washington. At the time of its signature, the treaty's verification regime was the most detailed and stringent in the history of nuclear arms control, designed both to eliminate all declared INF systems entirely within three years of the treaty's entry into force and to ensure compliance with the total ban on possession and use of these missiles.
For more in-depth information, please consult the Inventory of Nonproliferation Organizations and Regimes, which can be found on the CNS website at: http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/.
China and the INF Treaty:
China is not a member of the INF Treaty, since it is a bilateral agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. China praised the INF Treaty upon its completion.
During the negotiations of the INF Treaty, China let both the United States and the USSR know that it desired the elimination of Soviet SS-20 missiles in both Asia and Europe.
[Sources: Roxane D. V. Sismanidis, "China And The Post-Soviet Security Structure," Asian Affairs, Spring 1994, p. 42.]
For more about China's position on US-Soviet disarmament efforts, see:
[CHINA AND THE START TREATIES]
[CHINA AND NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT/ARMS CONTROL]
[CHRONOLOGY OF NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT/ARMS CONTROL-RELATED STATEMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS]
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently
verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2007
by MIIS.
