Address by Vladimir Putin, Acting President of the Russian Federation to the Participants in the review conference of the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, April 19, 2000

To the Participants in the Review Conference of the Parties

to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

I send my heartfelt greetings to the participants in the VI Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the first Conference since the adoption of a historic decision on the indefinite extension of the Treaty.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty has withstood the test of the time and in the course of its thirty-year history has confirmed its role as the most important instrument of containing the threat of nuclear proliferation. Its implementation has contributed to strengthened regional and global stability. The Treaty has laid the foundations for an irreversible progress towards nuclear disarmament and has reduced the risk of an outbreak of nuclear war.

Russia is committed to its obligations in the field of nuclear disarmament and intends to continue to abide by them in the conditions of maintaining strategic stability and of the system, established over recent decades, of disarmament Treaties as a basis for further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms.

As a Party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and as one of its Depositories, Russia considers the NPT to be one of the mainstays of the international security system. It is the NPT that constitutes the basic mechanism for preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons, while ensuring further international cooperation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

We attach great importance to this Conference, which is called upon to further strengthen the Treaty and the International Non-Proliferation Regime as a whole.

I wish every success and constructive work to the participants in the Conference.

Acting President of the

Russian Federation       V. Putin