The most important element of the summit concerned the SALT agreements. Discussions on SALT have been going on for about two and a half years, but with little progress. However, during the meeting between Nixon and Brezhnev in May 1972, a monumental breakthrough was made. The SALT agreements signed on 27 May addressed two important issues. First, they limited to two the number of anti-ballistic missile (ABM) sites that each country could have. (ABMs were missiles designed to destroy incoming missiles.) Secondly, the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-fired ballistic missiles has been frozen at the existing level. However, the agreements did not cover several re-entry missiles that could be targeted independently (single missiles with multiple nuclear warheads) or the development of new weapons. Nevertheless, most Americans and Soviets celebrated the SALT accords as huge achievements. Intensive research aimed to find ways to examine possible agreements without requiring access to the other party`s territory. Both the ABM Treaty and the Interim Agreement stipulate that compliance must be achieved by “national technical means of verification”. In addition, the agreements contain provisions that are important steps to strengthen security against violations: both parties undertake not to interfere with national technical means of verification.
In addition, both countries agree not to take deliberate obfuscation measures to impede the review. The talks culminated in START, or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties, which included START I (a 1991 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union) and START II (a 1993 agreement between the United States and Russia that was never ratified by the United States), both of which proposed restrictions on multi-warhead capability and other restrictions on the number of nuclear weapons on both sides. A successor to START I, New START, was proposed and finally ratified in February 2011. In August 1972, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved the agreements. SALT-I, as it was called, served as the basis for all subsequent arms restrictions talks. As its title suggests, “the Interim Agreement between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Certain Measures to Limit Offensive Weapons” was limited in duration and scope. It is expected to remain in force for five years. (See the previous section on SALT.) The two countries have pledged to continue negotiations for a more comprehensive agreement as soon as possible and the scope and terms of a new agreement should not be affected by the provisions of the 1972 agreement. Both agreements were accompanied by a series of “agreed statements” adopted and initialled by the heads of delegation.
When both agreements were submitted to the United States. They were also accompanied by joint agreements and unilateral declarations made during the negotiations. These should clarify certain provisions of the agreements or parts of the negotiating protocol. Even after the Vladivostok Agreements, the two nations could not resolve the other two outstanding issues of SALT I: the number of strategic bombers and the total number of warheads in each nation`s arsenal. The first was complicated by the Soviet bomber, which American negotiators thought could reach the United States, but which the Soviets did not want to include in the SALT negotiations. Meanwhile, the Soviets tried unsuccessfully to limit the U.S. deployment of airborne cruise missiles (ALCM). The verification also divided the two countries, but they eventually agreed on the use of national technical means (NTM), including the collection of electronic signals known as telemetry and the use of photographic reconnaissance satellites. On the 17th. In June 1979, Carter and Brezhnev signed the SALT II Treaty in Vienna. SALT II limited the total number of nuclear forces of the two countries to 2,250 launchers and imposed various other restrictions on deployed strategic nuclear forces, including MIRVs. Mobile ICBMs are not covered.
The Soviet Union considered that, since neither party had such systems, a freeze should not apply to it; it also opposed their ban in a future comprehensive agreement. The United States considered that they should be banned because of the difficulties in examination they represented. In an official statement, the U.S. delegation said the U.S. would consider the deployment of land-based mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles during the term of the agreement to be inconsistent with its objectives. Nixon was proud that, through his diplomatic skill, he reached an agreement that his predecessors could not reach. Nixon and Kissinger planned to combine arms control with détente and solve other pressing problems through what Nixon called “liaison.” David Tal argues: Negotiations began in November 1969 in Helsinki, Finland. [1] SALT I led to the Ballistic Missile Defense Treaty and an interim agreement between the two countries. Although SALT II led to an agreement in 1979, the U.S. Senate decided not to ratify the treaty in response to the Soviet war in Afghanistan, which took place later that year.
Nor did the Soviet legislature ratify it. The contract expired on 31 December 1985 and was not renewed. On May 27, President Reagan announced that the United States would no longer adhere to the treaty boundaries. The president said that the USSR was not fulfilling its political commitment to comply with the provisions of the treaty and was not showing its willingness to conclude new arms reduction agreements. He went on to say that the United States would base its decisions on its strategic force structure on the nature and extent of the threat posed by Soviet strategic forces, rather than on the standards contained in the SALT structure. He explained that the US would not use more SNDVs or strategic ballistic missile warheads than the USSR to protect strategic deterrence. The two agreements differ in duration and inclusiveness. The ABM Treaty “is indefinite,” but each party has the right to withdraw with six months` notice if it decides that its highest interests are compromised by “extraordinary events related to the subject matter of this contract.” The interim agreement was five years long and covered only some important aspects of strategic weapons. The agreements are interconnected not only in their strategic implications, but also in their relationship to future negotiations on restrictions on strategic offensive weapons.
An official statement by the United States underscored the critical importance it attaches to achieving more comprehensive restrictions on strategic offensive weapons. At the Vladivostok Summit in November 1974, Ford and Brezhnev agreed on the basic framework for a SALT II agreement. This included a limit of 2,400 strategic nuclear launchers (ICBMs, SLBMs and heavy bombers) on each side; a limit of 1,320 for MIRV systems; the ban on new ground-based ICBM launchers; and restrictions on the use of new types of strategic offensive weapons. Summary and Definition of Salt TreatiesSumerial and Definition: During the Cold War, a series of negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union began in November 1969 and ended in January 1972. The agreements reached during the negotiations, known as strategic arms limitation talks (SALT), led to the SALT contract. On May 26, 1972, Leonid Brezhnev and President Richard Nixon agreed on two documents known as SALT I, namely the Ballistic Missile Defense Treaty (ABM Treaty) and the Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Weapons. SALT II was released on September 18. It was signed in 1979 by Leonid Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter. Although SALT II has not been ratified, the United States and the USSR have voluntarily adhered to the border reduction provisions for strategic weapons. .