SALT-2 was signed between

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 2:
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II) treaty was a crucial component of détente, the period of easing Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1970s. This agreement was the culmination of years of negotiations following the signing of SALT I in 1972. The central aim of SALT II was to establish concrete limits on the number of strategic nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles held by both superpowers, specifically placing restrictions on intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers, submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers, and heavy bombers. The treaty was signed in Vienna on June 18, 1979, by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. President Carter viewed the treaty as a vital step towards global stability and arms control, aiming to secure mutually agreed-upon ceilings for their respective nuclear arsenals. Although signed, the treaty faced significant political opposition in the U.S. Senate, which refused to ratify it after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan later that year. However, both nations generally adhered to the terms of the treaty until 1986. Therefore, the leaders who officially concluded and signed the SALT II agreement were Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev.

The incorrect option is 1:
Nixon and Brezhnev signed the first agreement in this series, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), in Moscow in May 1972. SALT I included the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and an Interim Agreement on Offensive Arms, focusing on limiting anti-ballistic missile systems and temporarily freezing some offensive missile deployments. While Nixon and Brezhnev were instrumental in launching the détente era and concluding the first significant arms control agreement, they were not the signatories for SALT II. The negotiations for SALT II spanned across Nixon's tenure, but the final agreement was reached and signed by his successor, President Carter.

The incorrect option is 3:
Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush (Senior) were the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States, respectively, toward the end of the Cold War and into the post-Cold War transition. Their discussions and agreements focused on later arms reduction treaties, such as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), which was signed in 1991. START I went beyond limitation (as in SALT) to mandate actual reductions in strategic offensive arms. By the time Bush and Gorbachev were signing treaties, the SALT II era had long passed, and the Cold War structure was collapsing, making them too late to be signatories of the 1979 agreement.

The incorrect option is 4:
Boris Yeltsin and George Bush (Senior) were involved in forging relations between the U.S. and the Russian Federation after the official dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation. Together, they signed the START II treaty in 1993, which aimed for deeper cuts in strategic nuclear warheads than START I. This period marks the relationship between the two nations after the Cold War had officially ended. As SALT II was a product of the Cold War détente era, signed in 1979 while the Soviet Union was still intact and led by Brezhnev, Yeltsin was not a party to the treaty.