(SALT) Series of US-Soviet discussions aimed at reducing the rate of nuclear-arms buildup. (See also disarmament.) The talks, delayed by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia 1968, began in 1969 between US president Lyndon Johnson and Soviet leader Brezhnev. Neither the SALT I accord (effective 1972–77) nor SALT II called for reductions in nuclear weaponry, merely a limit on the expansion of these forces. SALT II was mainly negotiated by US president Ford before 1976 and signed by Soviet leader Brezhnev and President Carter in Vienna in 1979. It was never fully ratified because of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, although the terms of the accord were respected by both sides until President Reagan exceeded its limitations during his second term 1985–89. SALT talks were superseded by START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) negotiations under Reagan, and the first significant reductions began under Soviet President Gorbachev.
Negotiations between the US and the USSR opened in 1969 in Helsinki designed to limit both countries' stock of nuclear weapons; Also called: SALT.