Prelims_POWER PLAY_Imp International Treaties

Missile Technology Control Regime

The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is an informal and voluntary partnership between 34 countries to prevent the proliferation of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle technology capable of carrying a 500 kg payload at least 300 km.

Est: 1987

Treaty	Year	Parties	Provisions
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty	1972	US-Soviet Union	To limit ABM systems used in defending areas against missile delivered nuclear weapons US unilaterally withdrew in 2002
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)	1996/Not in force		Will come into force 180 days after it is ratified by all 44 annex 2 countries. India, US, Pakistan, Israel are Annex 2 countries. India, Pak, N. Korea havnt signed
Partial Test Ban Treaty	1963		Banned nuclear tests in atmosphere, underwater and in space.
NPT	1968/1970	189	Major non-parties: India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel. N Korea withdrew in 2003. Iran is a party 3 pillars: non proliferation, disarmament, peaceful use
Interim Agreement on Offensive Arms (SALT I)	1972	US-Soviet Union
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II)	1979	US-Soviet Union	Replaced SALT I. US withdrew from SALT II in 1986.
Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty	1987		Global ban on short and long range nuclear weapons systems, as well as intrusive verification regime
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I)	1991/1994	US-Soviet independent states	Limited long range nuclear forces
START II	1993/never put into force	Russia – US
Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT or Moscow treaty)	2002/2003		Ambiguous. US and Russia agreed to reduce their strategic nuclear warheads to between 1700 and 2200 by 2012
New START	2010/2011	Russia – US	Replaces SORT. Reduces nuclear warheads by about half. Will remain into force until at least 2021.

International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation was held in Tehran in 2010. US didn’t attend.

Security Related

Treaty	Year	Parties	Provisions
Biological Weapons Convention	1972/1975	163	Bans the production of biological and toxin weapons
Chemical Weapons Convention	1993/1997	188	Depository: UN Sec Gen Prohibits the use and production of chemical weapons Non-parties: Angola, Burma, Egypt, Israel, N. Korea, Somalia, Syria
Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons	1981/1983	109	Restricts the use of certain excessively injurious conventional weapons
Convention on Cluster Munitions	2008/2010	Parties: 108. Sign: 55	Prohibits the use, transfer and stockpile of cluster bombs

Civil Nuclear

Treaty	Year	Imp points
Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage	1963/1977	Operator’s liability limit at not less than 300 mn SDR

International Ownership

Treaty	Year	Major Points
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea	1982	Defines  territorial waters. Territorial sea – upto 12 nm Contiguous zone – from 12 nm upto 24 nm EEZ: from 12 nm to 200 nm (includes contiguous zone)

Non-proliferation

Wassenaar Arrangement

On export controls for conventional arms and dual use goods and technologies. It is a multilateral export control regime with 40 participating states (india is not yet a member: Nov 2010). Its secretariat is located in Vienna.

Estd: 1996

It is the successor to the cold war era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls.

The Australia Group

The Australia Group (AG) is an informal forum of countries which, through the harmonisation of export controls, seeks to ensure that exports do not contribute to the development of chemical or biological weapons.

Est: 1985

Codex Alimentarius

CA is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes or practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety developed by the FAO and WHO.