July 1, 1968

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty opens for signature

Fifty-nine states signed in three capitals in a single day. Two nuclear-armed powers, France and China, were not among them.

London, Moscow, Washington

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons opened for signature in all three depositary capitals on 1 July 1968. Fifty-nine states signed across them that day.

Representatives of 56 nations attended the White House ceremony, where Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Arms Control and Disarmament Agency director William Foster signed for the United States. France and the People's Republic of China, both nuclear-armed, did not sign; they acceded only in 1992.

The bargain in eleven articles

Nuclear-weapon parties undertook not to transfer nuclear weapons or assist their acquisition. Non-nuclear parties undertook not to acquire them and to accept IAEA safeguards.

All parties kept their peaceful nuclear rights, conditioned by those obligations, and all agreed to pursue good-faith disarmament negotiations. The definition of a nuclear-weapon state turned on a single date: manufacture and explosion of a nuclear device before 1 January 1967.

The other announcement in the East Room

President Johnson used the Washington ceremony to announce U.S.–Soviet agreement to begin discussions on limiting offensive strategic delivery systems and defenses against ballistic missiles.

The treaty itself was not yet law. The United States transmitted it to the Senate on 9 July, and it entered into force on 5 March 1970 after the three depositaries and forty other states deposited ratifications.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The 1 July date and three signing locations are firmly established.
North Korea acceded in 1985 and announced withdrawal in 2003. UN documentation describes its current membership status as uncertain, so party totals vary depending on how it is counted.