The first session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the 2005 NPT Review Conference is held at the United Nations in New York. The PrepCom adopts no final report. Instead, the PrepCom chairman issues a Chairman’s Summary.

The United States and Russia sign the Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty (Treaty of Moscow) in Moscow on May 24.

The U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty formally takes effect on June 13.

Cuba joins the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state (NNWS) on November 4.

The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1441, demanding that Iraq “cooperate immediately, unconditionally, and actively” with the IAEA and UNMOVIC.

UNMOVIC and the IAEA Action Team begin the first weapons inspections in Iraq in nearly four years.

In December, North Korea expels IAEA inspectors monitoring the country’s nuclear facilities. From this point, the IAEA claims it has no means of monitoring activities at North Korean nuclear facilities.