INF Treaty

Agreement between the United States and Soviet Union, signed in 1987, that requires destruction of both nations' ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges from 300 to 3,300 miles (500 and 5,500 km), their launchers, and associated support structures and equipment. In the mid-1970s, the Soviet Union began replacing its older intermediate-range ballistic missiles with the new SS-20, which was mobile, accurate, and easy to move and conceal. It also carried three independently targetable war-heads rather than the single warheads of earlier Soviet missiles. With a range of 3,000 miles (5,000 km), the SS-20 could hit targets in Western Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, most of Asia, Southeast Asia, and even Alaska.

In late 1979, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) responded with a strategy to counter the Soviet deployment of SS-20s. One part of the strategy featured negotiations with the Soviet Union to reduce intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) to the lowest possible levels. The second part involved deployment of more than 400 U.S. ground-launched cruise missiles and 108 intermediate-range Pershing II ballistic missiles in Western Europe, beginning in December 1983.

Despite initial resistance, the Soviet Union agreed to take part in discussions to limit INF, in the fall of 1980. The United States demanded that the agreement must (a) limit the size of U.S. and Soviet INF at an equal level; (b) exclude British and French missiles; (c) limit missile-system deployments on a global basis; (d) not compromise NATO's conventional defense capability; and (e) be verifiable. However, negotiations stalled over differences between the U.S. and Soviet positions, and the Soviets walked out of the talks on November 23, 1983.

In late 1985, the Soviet Union proposed an agreement that would permit some U.S. cruise missiles in Europe, along with SS-20 warheads equal to the sum of all warheads on U.S., British, and French systems combined. The Soviets also offered to freeze INF systems in Asia. The following October, U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik, Iceland, and agreed to a global limit of 100 intermediate-range systems apiece capable of carrying nuclear warheads. None of the systems would be deployed in Europe. The Soviet Union also proposed a freeze on shorter-range missile deployments and agreed to on-site verification.

In June 1987, after a series of offers and counteroffers, President Reagan proposed the elimination of all U.S. and Soviet shorter-range missile systems. On July 22 of that year, Gorbachev agreed to a double global zero treaty to eliminate both intermediate-range [Page 356]and short-range missiles. The treaty was signed at a summit meeting in Washington, DC, on December 8.

After the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, the United States sought to ensure continued compliance with the INF Treaty among the former Soviet republics. Six of those 12 states—Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan—have INF facilities on their territory. All are active participants in the treaty except Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Because each of those countries has only one inspectable site on its territory, they play a less active role in the treaty, with the consent of the active parties.

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