Annan welcomes signing of US-Russia nuclear weapons treaty

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed the signing in Moscow by the leaders of the United States and the Russian Federation of a treaty on the reduction of deployed nuclear arms.

Last week, Mr. Annan hailed the announcement by the two countries that they had agreed to sign an accord to greatly cut their deployed strategic nuclear weapons by the year 2012.

He called the move a "positive step in the direction of nuclear disarmament and contributes to the fulfilment of the obligations of the two countries as nuclear-weapon States under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons."