Moscow studies US new National Strategy for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction

Moscow is taking a close study of the US' new National Strategy for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction, which has been recently made public in Washington.

The US security agencies have made a thorough analysis and outlined long-term guidelines of countering the proliferation of mass destruction weapons, which is a major threat of the modern day, the Russian foreign ministry's information and press department told RIA Novosti Monday. This menace is enhanced by an outburst of terrorist activities world wide, reads the UN Strategy, something Moscow finds quite fair.

Russia and the US have made considerable progress in their non-proliferation co-operation in recent years, mainly thanks to summit meetings, which brought forth crucial bilateral agreements in that area, recalled the foreign ministry. Moscow is hopeful the new National Strategy of the US will foster further progress of bilateral and multilateral contacts that would be based on international law and give heed to national interests of the countries involved.

The Strategy advocates above all the strengthening of traditional instruments of countering the non-proliferation and purchase of WMD by international terrorists - diplomatic means, arms control, related multilateral understandings, arms exports control - the fact that is going to help step up Russia-US partnership in this area.

The ministry echoed the authors of the Strategy who call for strict observance of basic international understandings, in the first instance the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Chemical Weapons and the Biological Weapons Conventions.