Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were a paired series of bilateral negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War détente, conducted in two phases: SALT I (1969–1972) and SALT II (1972–1979). They marked the first formal effort by the two superpowers to place numerical ceilings on their strategic nuclear arsenals rather than merely regulating testing or geography. SALT I concluded on 26 May 1972 in Moscow, signed by President Richard Nixon and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, and comprised two instruments: the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the Interim Agreement on offensive arms. The talks were rooted in the doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD) and the recognition that defensive systems could destabilise deterrence by inviting a first strike.

The ABM Treaty limited each side to two ABM deployment areas (reduced to one by a 1974 protocol), thereby preserving each side's offensive deterrent by leaving populations deliberately vulnerable. The accompanying Interim Agreement froze the number of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers and submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers for five years, but did not cap warheads—an omission that allowed both sides to expand arsenals through Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs). Verification relied on "national technical means" (reconnaissance satellites), and each party undertook not to interfere with the other's monitoring. SALT II, signed on 18 June 1979 in Vienna by Jimmy Carter and Brezhnev, set equal aggregate ceilings of 2,400 (later 2,250) strategic delivery vehicles and sublimits on MIRVed systems, addressing some of SALT I's gaps.

SALT II never entered into force: following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, President Carter withdrew the treaty from US Senate ratification consideration in January 1980. Nonetheless, both Washington and Moscow informally observed its limits for several years. The SALT process was superseded by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) framework from 1991, which mandated actual reductions rather than mere limitation; the ABM Treaty itself lapsed when the United States unilaterally withdrew in June 2002 under President George W. Bush to pursue missile defence. As of 2026 the surviving strategic-arms instrument is New START (2010), extended in February 2021 to expire in February 2026, with Russia having suspended its participation in February 2023.

For the examinations, SALT recurs in the World History / International Relations segments of UPSC GS Paper I and the FSOT US History and World Affairs components, almost always within the broader theme of Cold War détente. Candidates should distinguish SALT (limitation, ceilings) from START (reduction), correctly pair SALT I with the ABM Treaty and Interim Agreement, and remember that SALT II was signed but never ratified because of Afghanistan. Frequent question angles include the role of MAD, the significance of "national technical means" of verification, the chronology Nixon–Brezhnev (1972) versus Carter–Brezhnev (1979), and the link between SALT and later arms-control regimes such as the INF Treaty and New START.