Time requires of all of us to act in unity with resolve and to assume the responsibility for the future of the United Nations. - Leonid Kuchma

With the era of great ideological confrontation behind us, mankind has managed to decrease the threat of self-destruction by nuclear conflagration and to establish sufficiently reliable mechanisms of international security.

Ukraine has consistently conducted, and is determined to continue, a policy aimed at strengthening security and stability throughout the world.

One of the important links between peace and development is the process of arms control and disarmament. The reduction of armaments and armed forces and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, unequivocally promote a decrease in the level of military threat, thus creating favourable external conditions for the existence and development of all members of the international community.