In his messages, Vladimir Putin informed Leonid Kuchma, Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev about Russia’s ratification of 1997 New York missile defence agreements.
The Russian president stressed that he regarded the approved documents as “an essential instrument to buttress the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty regimen.”
He believes that the agreements to delineate strategic and non-strategic ABM systems, which ban the development of non-strategic anti-missile systems that may have strategic ABM properties, rule out circumventing the ABM Treaty. Therefore, the agreements guarantee present-day ABM Treaty effectiveness with regard for changes in the global political situation, and the development of pioneer technologies since the Treaty signing.
Mr Putin expressed his hope that Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan would ratify the agreements as soon as possible.