Khitomer Accords

The Khitomer Accords consist of two historic peace treaties between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets and were the first step in reconciliation between the the two powers.

The accords were signed at the Khitomer Conference in 2293 on the Klingon planet Khitomer.

First Khitomer Accords

The explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis in 2293 caused severe ecological disasters on the Klingon Homeworld and an almost complete shutdown of the Klingon economy. The loss of energy production and environmental damage to Qo'noS were the straw that broke the back of Klingon imperial overstretch. Headed for economic ruin, the Klingon Empire made the pragmatic choice for peace. The Klingon Chancellor Gorkon initiated peace talks with the Federation in which Captain Spock served as special envoy to the Empire. The peace conference was first scheduled to be held on Earth, but was later relocated due to Chancellor Gorkon's assassination on his way to Earth. The new venue was Camp Khitomer, on the Klingon planet Khitomer, which was kept secret in order to prevent further assaults. Despite further actions by a Klingon/Federation/Romulan conspiracy, the Khitomer conference was a success and a turning point in Klingon-Federation relations.

Curzon Dax represented the Federation in the negotiations, at which the Romulan Senator Pardek was also present.

As part of the agreement, the Empire relinquished its historic claims to the Archanis Sector, which is located in Federation territory on the Klingon border. The Khitomer Accords also did away with the Klingon Neutral Zone.

In 2344, the Battle of Narendra III had a decisive influence on interstellar history. Having been betrayed by the Romulan Star Empire, and witnessing the courage of the Enterprise-C, this event had the effect of finally ending Romulan-Klingon relations and solidifying Federation-Klingon relations.

Strained Friendship

In 2372, Gowron withdrew the Klingon Empire from the Khitomer Accords in response to the Federation Council's condemnation of his invasion of Cardassia Prime.

The following year, Gowron reinstated the treaty when an alliance between the Dominion and the Cardassian Union threatened to throw the Alpha Quadrant into war.

Second Khitomer Accords

The Second Khitomer Accords were signed in 2368 after the Second Khitomer conference, by the Klingon Empire and the Federation but since then almost all of the other Alpha Quadrant powers have signed up to this latest treaty. It has however, been arguably the least influential treaty to date, with a number of the provisions in the Treaty being largely ignored by many powers. Among the provisions of Khitomer II are:

• Subspace weapons were banned, but provision was made for low-yield subspace munitions such as the Federation's Tri-cobalt device, provided that their usage was not widespread.
• The use of biogenic and other "Weapons of Mass Destruction" was also prohibited.
• Provisions were also made to protect Prisoners of War and non-combatants during wartime.
• The "Evacuation protocol" was implemented, which stated that civilians should be allowed to leave a warzone and not harassed during this process.
• The conference system was implemented for conflict resolution, it made provision for any signatory to file a complaint about another and to have this matter resolved by a conference of signatories. This conference system has been infrequently used as more informal "border diplomacy" between ship's Captain's is much more prevalent.

It should be noted that the actions of the Klingon Empire during the Second Federation-Klingon War were not governed by the Accords due to the Empire having pulled out of the accords. They also did not apply to the Klingon-Cardassian War, since the Cardassian Empire were not at that time signatories. The Dominion War was also conducted outside of Khitomer II's rules of conduct as neither the Dominion nor the Cardassian Empire were at that time signatories.

Reference(s)

• Campbell, Brian, et al. The Price of Freedom: The United Federation of Planets Sourcebook, Culver City, CA: Last Unicorn Games, 1999.