Moscow Welcomes Results Of The Second Conference Of States Parties To The Convention On "inhuman" Weapons

Moscow has welcomed results of the second Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on "Inhuman" Weapons, held in Geneva. A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry has told RIA Novosti that Moscow views "the forum and its decisions as a major stage in efforts to make the Convention and its protocols universal and to further improve international humanitarian law." The results of the conference convincingly show the high potential of the multilateral disarmament process. Moscow expresses hope that this "local" success will help to positively influence this difficult, actually crisis, situation in this sphere. The spokesman noted that Russia was one of the first states to sign and ratify the Convention on "Inhuman" Weapons and three of its four protocols. Russia also signed and observes the Amended "Mine" Protocol II to the Convention, documents for the ratification of which have already been submitted by the president to the State Duma [the lower house of the Russian parliament], the spokesman said.