----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 8:26 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] 12 CIS states come out against ABM treaty STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM CIS leaders defend ABM treaty MOSCOW, JUNE 21. In a united show of resistance to U.S. plans to deploy a national missile defence shield, the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) called today at their Moscow summit meeting for the preservation of the 1972 ABM treaty. The Presidents of the 12 former Soviet republics said in a statement that the anti-ballistic missile treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union must remain the ``foundation of global strategic stability, international security and peace around the world.'' Failure to do so would undermine ``steps toward the further reduction of strategic nuclear armaments,'' Interfax news agency quoted from the document. The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, said the declaration was ``a further small cornerstone contributed by the CIS states to international security.'' It was adopted after discussion of U.S. efforts to bend the terms of the ABM treaty to allow deployment of an anti- missile umbrella against possible attack by third countries, he said. Russia has for months fought U.S. plans for the shield, which it says could herald the collapse of a number of key existing defence treaties on nuclear and conventional military forces. Mr. Putin then said during talks earlier this month with the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, and other European leaders that such a system might be broadened to include Russia and European members of NATO. The one-day Moscow summit was still expected to focus on joint CIS efforts to combat international terrorism, which Russia mainly fears in the form of Islamic extremists penetrating its southern frontiers. At the start of the meeting, Mr. Putin called for deeper cooperation between the CIS member-states, the Itar-Tass news agency said. Ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany on June 22, 1941, Mr. Putin said, ``all of our peoples and nations survived this test.'' The CIS is currently a loose organisation comprising Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. - DPA ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
