TREATY OBLIGATIONS
1. Outer Space Treaty. Prohibits the placement, installation, or stationing of nuclear weapons in orbit around the earth, in outer space, or on celestial bodies. Suborbital nuclear missiles are not prohibited by this treaty. Withdrawal provision (Article XVI) requires 1 year prior written notice.*
2. Seabed Arms Control Treaty. Prohibits placement of nuclear weapons (nuclear launching devices, storage or testing facilities) on the ocean floor beyond a 12-nautical-mile coastal zone measured from the baseline of the territorial sea, as stated in the Convention of the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone of 1958. Withdrawal provision (Article VIII) requires 3 months advance notice.*
3. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Prohibits testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater (including territorial water or high seas). Restricts underground testing to the extent that radioactive debris would pass outside the testing state. Withdrawal provision (Article IV) requires 3 months advance notice.*
4. Nonproliferation Treaty. Prohibits nuclear states from passing nuclear weapons, weapons technology, and weapons grade fissionable material to nonnuclear states. Transfer of fissionable material to nonnuclear states for peaceful purposes is subject to safeguards to prevent diversion of the material into weapons development. Withdrawal provision (Article X) requires 3 months advance notice.*
5. Additional Protocols I and II of the Treaty of Tlatelolco. This treaty and its protocols essentially make Latin America a nuclear-free zone. The United States is not a party to the original treaty and ratified the Protocols subject to "understandings and declarations." Withdrawal provisions in Protocol I, Article 2, and Protocol II, Article 4, incorporate the denunciation provision in Article XXX of the original treaty.*
6. Antarctic Treaty. Prohibits establishment of military bases, fortifications, maneuver, any testing of any type of weapons, including nuclear, or disposal of nuclear wastes in Antarctica. Limited withdrawal provision (Article XII) requires 2 years notice.*
7. Bilateral Nuclear Arms Control Agreements. The United States and the former Soviet Union have concluded a number of bilateral agreements designed to restrain the development ofnuclear warheads and launchers and to lessen the danger of miscalculation that could trigger nuclear conflict. Among these agreements are the:
b. Direct Communication Agreement of 1971.
c. Accidents Measures Agreement of 1971.
d. 1973 Agreement on Prevention of Nuclear War.
e. Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 and its Protocol of 1974.
f. Threshold Test Ban Treaty of 1974.
g. 1976 Treaty on Peaceful Nuclear Explosions.
h. Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) Agreement of 1973 and 1977 (SALT I, Interim Agreement has expired; SALT II was never ratified).
i. Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987.
j. Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) Agreement: Signed by Presidents Bush and Gorbachev on 31 July 1991; agreement awaits full ratification and entry into force.
Additionally, some US military basing rights agreements restrict the storage or installation of nuclear weapons in the host country.