Five Nuclear Powers Hail Mongolia's Declaration of Nuke-Free StatusChina, France, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States Thursday issued a statement to welcome to the declaration by Mongolia of its nuclear-weapon-free status.John Holum, U.S. under secretary of state for arms control and international security, read the statement on behalf of the five nuclear powers at the general debate of the First Committee of the 55th General Assembly session. The First Committee is in charge of disarmament and international security. The statement, entitled "Statement on Security Assurances in Connection With Mongolia's Nuclear-Weapon-Free Status," said that the five countries welcome "Mongolia's policies of developing peaceful, friendly and mutually beneficial relations with the States of the region and other states." The five countries reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate with Mongolia in the implementation of the General Assembly resolution, adopted on December 4, 1998, and in accordance with the principles of the U.N. Charter, the statement said. The five countries, who all happen to be permanent members of the Security Council, reaffirmed "their commitment to seek immediate U.N. Security Council action to provide assistance to Mongolia, as a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons " if Mongolia should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used," the statement said. The assistance, if necessary, will be provided under the Security Council resolution 984 of April 11, 1995, the statement said. "The People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation recall and confirm the legally-binding commitments undertaken by them with respect to Mongolia through the conclusion of bilateral treaties with Mongolia regarding these matters," the statement said. Holum said that the five countries plan to ask the presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council to circulate the statement as an official document of their respective bodies. In addition, they will also arrange for the statement to be circulated as an official document of the Conference on Disarmament, he said. |
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