SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES AGREEMENT BY UNITED STATES, RUSSIAN FEDERATION TO REDUCE NUCLEAR WEAPONS

SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES AGREEMENT BY UNITED STATES, RUSSIAN FEDERATION

TO REDUCE NUCLEAR WEAPONS

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General welcomes the announcement that the United States of America and the Russian Federation have agreed to sign a treaty to reduce their deployed strategic nuclear weapons substantially by the year 2012.

The signature of the treaty in Moscow by Presidents Bush and Putin next week will be a positive step in the direction of nuclear disarmament and contributes to the fulfillment of the obligations of the two countries as nuclear-weapon States under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

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