START, the cornerstone of nuclear containment

The balance and containment of atomic weapons led to several agreements between the United States and Russia, with the end of the Cold War – after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall – and the possibility of a new relationship between the two powers.

the end of the cold war

New relationship. The first agreement on the reduction of strategic arms was signed by the presidents on December 31, 1991. George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev it was the most ambitious disarmament treaty in post-World War II history. For each country before 2001, he ordered the reduction of the arsenal from 10,000 to 6,000 nuclear warheads and strategic bombers and ballistic missiles to 1,600.

In addition, it established commitment verification measures and forced both powers to share information about their strategic nuclear forces.

LEAVING

Interruption. in 1993 George Bush and Boris Yeltsin signed a pact limiting each country’s nuclear warheads to 3,500 (US) and 3,000 (Russia) by 2007, but the US never ratified it and Russia abandoned it in 2002, in response to the US decision to do the same with the Anti- The ABM Ballistic Missile Treaty, which allowed Washington to build its strategic anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, which Moscow sees as a direct threat to its security.

For this reason, at the end of 2007, Russia left the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (FACE), which is considered the cornerstone of the continent’s security and which was signed in Paris by a total of 28 Western and Eastern European countries, led by the United States and Russia.

BEGINNING-3

Another attempt. Although START formally expired on December 5, 2009, the Treaty was effectively extinguished by the birth of its successor, New START or START 3, which was signed in Prague by the then presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, April 8, 2010

New START limited the number of strategic nuclear weapons, with a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads and 700 ballistic systems for each of the two powers, on land, at sea or in the air.

During the last years that the treaty has remained in force – it expired on February 5, 2021 – talks have been open between the two powers to extend it. The main difference was the Government’s insistence Donald Trump that China is participating in the talks, despite the Asian giant refusing to sit down at the negotiating table, considering that it has far fewer nuclear weapons than Washington and Moscow.

Coming from Joe Biden to the American presidency, the talks gained new momentum and on February 3, 2021, the American president agreed with Vladimir Putin extend START III for five years.