START III


START III was a proposed bi-lateral nuclear disarmament treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation. It meant to drastically reduce the deployed nuclear weapons arsenals of both countries and to continue the weapons reduction efforts that had taken place in the START I and START II negotiations. The framework for negotiations of the treaty began with talks in Helsinki between President Bill Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin in 1997. However, negotiations broke down and the treaty was never signed.
Proposed basic elements of the treaty included:
The talks faced a number of obstacles. The refusal of the Russian Duma to ratify the START II treaty delayed the start of formal negotiations by more than two years after Yeltsin and Clinton completed the initial framework discussions in 1997. Ratification had been delayed due to NATO airstrikes against Afghanistan, Sudan, and Serbia, along with Russia's opposition to the eastward expansion of NATO, and Russian opposition to America's plans to build a limited missile defense system.
Very little progress was made towards completing negotiations on START III. Attempts at negotiating START III were eventually abandoned and the US and Russia instead agreed to the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty or Moscow Treaty.

In popular culture

START III plays a large role in the 1998 video game, Metal Gear Solid. In the game a nuclear terrorist attack is scheduled on the date of the signing of START III which is supposed to take place at the end of February 2005.