Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
Recent developments
  • Russia has raised the possibility of withdrawing from the INF Treaty. Moscow contends that the treaty unfairly prevents it from possessing weapons that its neighbours, such as China, who are developing and fielding.
  • Russia also has suggested that the proposed U.S. deployment of strategic anti-ballistic missile systems in Europe might trigger a Russian withdrawal from the accord, presumably so Moscow can deploy missiles targeting any future U.S. anti-missile sites.
  • Still, the United States and Russia issued an October 25, 2007, statement at the United Nations General Assembly reaffirming their “support” for the treaty and calling on all other states to join them in renouncing the missiles banned by the treaty.

Background of the treaty

  • The INF treaty has its origins in the Euromissile crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Soviet Union’s deployment of the SS-20, an advanced and accurate missile that could strike most of Europe from deep within Russia alarmed Europe.
  • America had short-range missiles in Europe, which could not reach Soviet territory, and long-range ones at home and aboard submarines, but nothing in this middle category; if the Soviets attacked Europe with the SS-20, America would be forced to escalate to its biggest weapons.
  • European allies fretted that it would not do so. To assuage these concerns, and to force the Soviet Union to change course, America deployed the Pershing II ballistic missile and a new ground-launched cruise missile into Europe.
  • That, in turn, worried the Soviet Union. These could reach Moscow in under ten minutes, potentially forcing leaders into a panicky response.
  • Anti-nuclear protests erupted across Europe as the new missiles rolled in. The INF treaty cut through this knot.
  • It prohibited not only the offending Soviet and American missiles but also the flight-testing, development and deployment of all ground-based missiles with ranges between 300 and 3,300 miles. Almost 3,000 existing weapons were destroyed, with the Soviet Union getting rid of twice as many.

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

  • The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty, formally 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) is a 1987 arms control agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union.
  • Under the INF Treaty, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. agreed to eliminate within three years all ground-launched-missiles of 500-5,500 km range and not to develop, produce or deploy these in future.
  • The U.S. destroyed 846 Pershing IIs and Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCMs) and the U.S.S.R., 1,846 missiles (SS-4s, SS-5s and SS-20s), along with its support facilities.

Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

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