Start Treaties

Clinton and Yeltsin negotiated for a START III treaty, which would have reduced the number of deployed strategic warheads to between 2,000 and 2,500. The two leaders agreed to a framework in March 1997, and the negotiations were scheduled to begin after the START II treaty entered into force. However, because START II never became effective, the START III treaty was never negotiated. The most significant aspects of the START III treaty were proposed provisions regarding the destruction of warheads.

Five years after the START III negotiations stalled, President GEORGE W. BUSH and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the SORT treaty, in which the United States and Russia agreed to reduce their strategic nuclear arsenals to an amount between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads each. These limitations are similar to the proposed START III treaty, but the new SORT treaty does not contain provisions regarding the destruction of warheads or the destruction of delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons. As of May 2003, neither the U.S. Senate nor the Russian Duma had ratified the treaty. The proposed implementation and expiration dates for the treaty occur in 2012.