Bilateral Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

After a preliminary exchange of view s at meetings held in Helsinki from 17 November to 22 December 1969, the strategic arms limitation talks (SALT) between the representatives of the USSR and the United States opened in Vienna on 16 April 1970. Thus began the bilateral process of disarmament negotiations betweeji the two major nuclear Powers which had first been announced on 1 July 1968, the day that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons had been opened for signature. On that occasion, the USSR and the United States had declared their intention to enter into bilateral discussions on the “ limitation and reduction of both offensive and defensive strategic nuclear-weapon delivery systems and systems of defense against ballistic missiles”

Related Subject(s): Disarmament