Read the passage and answer the questions:
Traditional views of security do not rule out other forms of cooperation as well. The most important of these are disarmament, arms control, and confidence building. The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) banned the production and possession of these weapons. More than 155 states acceded to the BWC and 193 states acceded to the CWC. Both conventions included all the great powers. But the superpowers — the US and Soviet Union — did not want to give up the third type of weapons of mass destruction, namely, nuclear weapons, so they pursued arms control.
Arms control regulates the acquisition or development of weapons. The Anti-ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 1972 tried to stop the United States and Soviet Union from using ballistic missiles as a defensive shield to launch a nuclear attack. While it did allow both countries to deploy a very limited number of defensive systems, it stopped them from large-scale production of those systems.
The US and Soviet Union signed a number of other arms control treaties including the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty II or SALT II and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 was an arms control treaty in the sense that it regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons: those countries that had tested and manufactured nuclear weapons before 1967 were allowed to keep their weapons; and those that had not done so were to give up the right to acquire them. The NPT did not abolish nuclear weapons; rather, it limited the number of countries that could have them.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 was an arms control Treaty because:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → It regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons
Option (1) It regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons — Correct. The NPT of 1968 was an arms control treaty in the sense that it regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons, since arms control regulates the acquisition or development of weapons.
Option (2) The US and the Soviet Union signed it — Incorrect. Who signed a treaty does not decide its type; what makes it arms control is that it regulated the acquisition of weapons.
Option (3) It was unfavourable to BWC and CWC — Incorrect. The BWC and CWC are disarmament conventions; the NPT was not set against them.
Option (4) The NPT did not abolish nuclear weapons — Incorrect. This is a true fact about the NPT, but not doing away with nuclear weapons is not what makes a treaty one of arms control; regulating their acquisition is.
Note: One can argue that Option (4) is also a reason, because not abolishing the weapons is what separates arms control from disarmament, which requires states to give up certain kinds of weapons. The passage, however, gives the reason in its own words: the NPT was an arms control treaty in the sense that it regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons. Option (1) is marked as per the NTA answer key.
NCERT: Contemporary World Politics — Chapter 5: Security in the Contemporary World (2025-26)
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