Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty specifically eliminated all ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. This included the Soviet Union's highly capable SS-20 missiles and the United States' Pershing II launchers. The treaty was groundbreaking because it required the actual physical destruction of these weapons, rather than just capping their numbers.

The treaty was signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. They signed the agreement on December 8, 1987, during a historic summit in Washington, D.C. This moment is widely remembered as a major turning point that helped de-escalate the Cold War.

The U.S. officially suspended its obligations in 2019, followed by Russia doing the same, after years of accusations. The U.S. government formally withdrew because they claimed Russia was in material breach of the treaty by developing and deploying the Novator 9M729 cruise missile. Russia denied the missile violated the range limits and accused the U.S. of using intermediate-range defense systems as a loophole.

The INF Treaty was the first-ever nuclear arms control agreement to actually eliminate an entire category of nuclear weapons. It successfully diffused a massive crisis in Europe, where the deployment of intermediate-range missiles had put the continent on a hair-trigger alert. The treaty paved the way for the later Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, known as START.