Seabed Arms Control Treaty

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Seabed Arms Control Treaty

Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil Thereof
Ratifications and signatories of the treaty   Parties   Signatories   Non-parties
Signed	11 February 1971
Effective	18 May 1972
Condition	22 ratifications (including depositary states)
Signatories	84
Parties	94[1] (as of May 2014)
Depositary	Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Languages	English, French, Russian, Spanish and Chinese
Full text
Seabed Arms Control Treaty at Wikisource

The Seabed Arms Control Treaty (or Seabed Treaty, formally the Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil thereof) is a multilateral agreement between the United States, Soviet Union (now Russia), United Kingdom, and 91 other countries^[1] banning the emplacement of nuclear weapons or "weapons of mass destruction" on the ocean floor beyond a 12-mile (22.2 km) coastal zone. It allows signatories to observe all seabed "activities" of any other signatory beyond the 12-mile zone to ensure compliance.

Like the Antarctic Treaty, the Outer Space Treaty, and the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone treaties, the Seabed Arms Control Treaty sought to prevent the introduction of international conflict and nuclear weapons into an area hitherto free of them. Reaching agreement on the seabed, however, involved problems that were not met in framing the other two agreements.