UN General Assembly
1992

Arms stockpiling is, as before, a threat to security. One of the most important elements in military security is the openness or transparency of military programmes and activities. As a member of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), my country is participating in the development of this process. The move towards direct cooperation in the form of wide-ranging and intensive multilateral exchanges of information on military budgets and numbers, production levels, research, development and modernization programmes and weapons deployment and delivery plans seems to be a desirable one. Such openness will create an atmosphere of trust, make it easier to predict developments in the overall security situation, bolster stability and reduce the risk of war. During the long years of the East-West conflict it was usual for one side to arm the other's enemies. Today, when the threat of confrontation along East-West lines has gone, this so-called foreign-policy wisdom is likely to prove a significant danger to us all. Weapons proliferation is a serious challenge to international security and requires the world community to take