Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (1991)

Summary

Bilateral agreement between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., which if ratified, would set a ceiling of 1,600 strategic nuclear delivery vehicles and 6,000 "accountable" warheads for each country. START cuts U.S. long-range nuclear warheads by 15%, Soviet by 25%. Both sides are permitted to continue modernization plans, and the number of nuclear warheads carried on some categories of strategic weapons is projected to actually increase by the late 1990s under the treaty.

Shortly after the signing of this treaty, the U.S.S.R. dissolved. The four former republics, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, that possessed nuclear weapons, have endorsed the treaty by signing the START I Protocol. As a result of Ukraine's joining the NPT, this treaty went into effect in December 1994. At the end of 2001, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine no longer had any strategic nuclear forces.