    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 25 (Monday, June 28, 1999)]
    [Pages 1153-1154]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Joint Statement Between the United States and the Russian Federation
    Concerning Strategic Offensive and Defensive Arms and Further
    Strengthening of Stability

    June 20, 1999

        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

    [[Page 1154]]

    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.

    Note: An original was not available for verification of the content of
    this joint statement.