SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES AGREEMENT BETWEEN RUSSIAN FEDERATION, UNITED STATES

 

TO REDUCE STRATEGIC WARHEADS, DELIVERY VEHICLES, AS FOLLOW-ON TO ‘START’

 

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

The Secretary-General welcomes the Joint Understanding for a follow-on agreement to the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START) between President [Dmitry] Medvedev and President [Barack] Obama yesterday in Moscow, which commits the Russian Federation and the United States to reduce their strategic warheads to a range of 1,500‑1,675, and their strategic delivery vehicles to a range of 500‑1,000.

This agreement is consistent with the disarmament obligations by the two largest nuclear-weapon States under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).  The Secretary-General believes that this agreement will make a significant contribution to the process of nuclear disarmament, as well as nuclear non-proliferation during the lead up to the 2010 NPT Review Conference and eventually to achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.

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For information media • not an official record