On 26 November a meeting of Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Ryabkov with Head of the European Union Delegation to Russia, Vygaudas Usackas took place in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the initiative of Mr. Usackas. The discussion focused on the international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) due to come into force on 24 December 2014.
Participants included representatives from the Embassies of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain and the UK in Moscow.
The Russian side emphasised, in particular, the importance of establishing by the ATT participating states of national arms transfer control systems similar to the one that has been long ago established and since then effectively operating in the Russian Federation.
At the same time, Russian side highlighted some significant ATT drawbacks which made the Russian Federation refrain from joining the ATT for the time being.
Mr. Ryabkov expressed his satisfaction with the fact that entry into force of the ATT will reaffirm the already existing EU legal obligations regulating arms transfer to third countries, which is particularly important in the context of the situation in Ukraine and around it.
Parties also exchanged their views on the results of the round of negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme which has just concluded in Vienna.
26 November 2014
