The conference that led to the treaty was boycotted by all nuclear weapon states, as well as all NATO members except the Netherlands, which voted against the treaty.
The treaty entered into force on January 22, 2021.
The New Start treaty or START III
START III (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) is an agreement signed by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the President of Russia, Dmitri Medvedev, on April 8, 2010 in Prague, and ratified by both countries in December 2010 and January 2011.
Through this agreement, both countries ended the period of the so-called Cold War and surpassed the START I and START II strategic agreements.
The parties agreed to reduce their atomic arsenal by two-thirds, which meant limiting each party’s arsenal to 1,550 warheads and 800 undeployed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers, underwater launchers for ballistic missiles (SLBM) and heavy bombers equipped with nuclear weapons.
This new treaty also limited the number of ICBMs, SLBMs, and nuclear bombers deployed or operational, reducing it to 700 operational units.