US President Barack Obama today sent the Protocol to the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia for ratification to the US Senate.
He said in a letter of explanation that this step would benefit the US by raising the country’s security, and would also consolidate relations between the US and Central Asian countries.
In 2006, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan signed an agreement on the establishment of a nuclear-free zone. The agreement has been in effect since 2009. The protocol to the said treaty was signed in 2014 by five nuclear powers - Russia, China, the US, France and the UK.
Last week, the law on the protocol’s ratification was signed by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, RIA Novosti reports.
