THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Cologne, Germany)
For Immediate Release June 20, 1999
JOINT STATEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION CONCERNING STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE ARMS
AND FURTHER STRENGTHENING OF STABILITY
Confirming their dedication to the cause of strengthening strategic stability and international security, stressing the
importance of further reduction of strategic offensive arms, and recognizing the fundamental importance of the Treaty on
the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM Treaty) for the attainment of these goals, the United States of
America and the Russian Federation declare their determination to continue efforts directed at achieving meaningful
results in these areas.
The two governments believe that strategic stability can be strengthened only if there is compliance with existing
agreements between the Parties on limitation and reduction of arms. The two governments will do everything in their
power to facilitate the successful completion of the START II ratification processes in both countries.
The two governments reaffirm their readiness, expressed in Helsinki in March 1997, to conduct new negotiations on
strategic offensive arms aimed at further reducing for each side the level of strategic nuclear warheads, elaborating
measures of transparency concerning existing strategic nuclear warheads and their elimination, as well as other agreed
technical and organizational measures in order to contribute to the irreversibility of deep reductions including
prevention of a rapid build-up in the numbers of warheads and to contribute through all this to the strengthening of
strategic stability in the world. The two governments will strive to accomplish the important task of achieving results
in these negotiations as early as possible.
Proceeding from the fundamental significance of the ABM Treaty for further reductions in strategic offensive arms, and
from the need to maintain the strategic balance between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, the
Parties reaffirm their commitment to that Treaty, which is a cornerstone of strategic stability, and to continuing
efforts to strengthen the Treaty, to enhance its viability and effectiveness in the future.
The United States of America and the Russian Federation, recalling their concern about the proliferation in the world
of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, including missiles and missile technologies, expressed by
them in the Joint Statement on Common Security Challenges at the Threshold of the Twenty First Century, adopted on
September 2, 1998 in Moscow, stress their common desire to reverse that process using to this end the existing and
possible new international legal mechanisms.
In this regard, both Parties affirm their existing obligations under Article XIII of the ABM Treaty to consider
possible changes in the strategic situation that have a bearing on the ABM Treaty and, as appropriate, possible
proposals for further increasing the viability of this Treaty.
The Parties emphasize that the package of agreements signed on September 26, 1997 in New York is important under
present conditions for the effectiveness of the ABM Treaty, and they will facilitate the earliest possible ratification
and entry into force of those agreements.
The implementation of measures to exchange data on missile launches and on early warning and to set up an appropriate
joint center, recorded in the Joint Statement by the Presidents of the United States of America and the Russian
Federation signed on September 2, 1998 in Moscow, will also promote the strengthening of strategic stability.
Discussions on START III and the ABM Treaty will begin later this summer. The two governments express their confidence
that implementation of this Joint Statement will be a new significant step to enhance strategic stability and the
security of both nations.
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