Kozyrev Attends UN Disarmament Conference Session -- Reaffirms Intention To Ratify START

By ITAR-TASS correspondent Konstantin Pribytkov
Moscow ITAR-TASS World Service
in Russian, 1530 GMT 29 Jun 95


[FBIS Translated Text] Geneva, 29 Jun (ITAR-TASS) -- After arriving in Geneva today Russian Foreign Minister Andrey Kozyrev reaffirmed the support of President Yeltsin and the Russian Government for ratification of the START-II Treaty. Addressing a plenary session of the UN Conference on Disarmament, the minister stressed that as the president's representative in parliament he "will do everything necessary to achieve this." "Naturally we shall be able to set about ratifying the treaty only if there is strict compliance with the ABM Treaty on the basis of agreement with the United States on the demarcation between tactical and strategic systems."

The signing of the START-II Treaty and the indefinite extension of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty have secured, according to Kozyrev, "an historic breakthrough in the sphere of nuclear disarmament." At the same time, the minister considered it necessary to remind people that the indefinite extension of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is "not a mandate for the five nuclear powers to possess nuclear weapons for all time but a stimulus for their further active disarmament efforts."



THIS REPORT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL.
COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS