WMD 411 Chronology — 1990

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Produced by the Monterey Institute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies

KEY: [B] Biological, [C] Chemical, [M] Missile, [N] Nuclear, [O] Organization [T] Terrorism

Feb 7-9 1990 [C] U.S. Secretary of State Baker and Russian Foreign Minister Shevardnadze agree on a framework for action to expedite the negotiations at the CD for a Chemical Weapons Convention.

May 22 1990 [B] U.S. President Bush signs the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act, making it illegal for anyone in the United States to develop or possess biological weapons (BW).

June 1 1990 [N] The United States and Soviet Union sign new verification protocols to the 1974 Threshold Test-Ban Treaty and the 1976 Underground Nuclear Explosions for Peaceful Purposes Treaty, which provides for advanced notification and onsite inspection of tests above 35 kilotons.

June 1 1990 [C] Presidents Bush and Gorbachev sign the bilateral "Agreement on Destruction and Non-production of Chemical Weapons and on Measures to Facilitate the Multilateral Convention on Banning Chemical Weapons."

June 19-21 1990 [B, C] At a meeting of the Australia Group in Paris, the United States obtains an agreement "to control additional chemicals, expand the group's activities into biological weapon proliferation, pursue further standardization, and create an export data base."

July 1990 [N] South Africa begins to dismantle its nuclear weapons.

Aug 2 1990 [O] Iraq invades Kuwait.

Aug 20-Sept 14 1990 [N] The fourth nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference is held in Geneva.

Sept 25 1990 [N] The United States ratifies the Threshold Test-Ban Treaty. The treaty prohibits underground nuclear weapon tests with a yield exceeding 150 kilotons.

Sept 27 1990 [N] The last of the U.S. Pershing II missiles leave West Germany. The United States withdrew the missiles in accordance with the INF Treaty, which eliminated and prohibited the possession of an entire class of ground-launched intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles and their launchers.

Oct 3 1990 [O] The reunification of Germany is complete.

Oct 24 1990 [N] The Soviet Union conducts its last nuclear test before adhering to a unilateral moratorium.

Nov 15 1990 [C, B] President Bush issues Executive Order 12735, which finds that the spread of CW and BW constitutes an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," and declares a state of national emergency to deal with this threat.

Nov 16 1990 [N] The Stockholm Declaration on Preventing Accidental Nuclear War is released.

Nov 19 1990 [O] The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE Treaty) is signed by states that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or the Warsaw Pact.

Nov 29 1990 [N] Argentine President Carlos Menem and Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello sign the Declaration on the Common Nuclear Policy, which formally renounces nuclear weapons and establishes a framework for the implementation of a bilateral nuclear accounting and inspection arrangement with full IAEA safeguards.

Dec 4 1990 [N] The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the Establishment of a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in the Middle East.

Dec 11 1990 [N] New verification protocols for the 1974 Threshold Test-Ban Treaty enter into force.

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This material is produced independently for NTI by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2008 by MIIS.