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Putin submits protocol to Treaty on nuclear-free zone in Central Asia for ratification

Russia signed the Protocol on May 6, 2014 simultaneously with all the states possessing nuclear weapons but made some reservations in it
Former nuclear testing range in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, 1990 (archive) ITAR-TASS/V.Pavlunin
Former nuclear testing range in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, 1990 (archive)
© ITAR-TASS/V.Pavlunin

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday submitted a Protocol to the Treaty on a nuclear-free zone in Central Asia to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, for ratification.

The Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia was signed in Semipalatinsk on September 8, 2006 by representatives of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and came into force on March 21, 2009.

All the participants to the Treaty undertake not to develop, manufacture or otherwise acquire, possess or have control over any nuclear weapon, not to allow its stationing or transportation by any means, its testing or use, and also undertake not to allow in their territory any such actions by other states.

The Treaty includes a Protocol open for signature by states possessing nuclear weapons. Under the Protocol, these countries, in particular, undertake not to use or threaten to use a nuclear weapon against any party to the Treaty on a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia.

Russia signed the Protocol on May 6, 2014 simultaneously with all the states possessing nuclear weapons but made some reservations in it.

In particular, Russia made a traditional reservation that it will not consider itself bound by the obligations stipulated in the Protocol in the event of an attack against it, its Armed Forces or other troops, "against its allies or against a state, with which it is bound by security obligations, carried out or supported by a state not possessing nuclear weapons jointly with a state possessing nuclear weapons, or upon the existence of allied obligations to this state."

Russia’s other reservation says the Russian Federation reserves the right not to consider itself bound by the Protocol, if any party to the Treaty "allows foreign military vessels and aircraft with nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices aboard to call at its ports and landing at its aerodromes, or any other form of transit of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices through its territory.".