PRESS RELEASE (93)68                               12 November 1993

              NATO SEMINAR WITH PARTNER COUNTRIES ON JOINT
              IMPLEMENTATION OF CONVENTIONAL ARMS CONTROL

From 15 to 17 November, NATO's Verification Co-ordinating Committee is
hosting, at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, a Seminar with
Cooperation Partner countries on cooperation in the verification and
implementation of conventional arms control provisions, such as the
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE Treaty) and of the
Vienna Document 92. Representatives from the Ministries of Foreign
Affairs and Defence and the Heads of the national verification
organisations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, the
Slovak Republic and Ukraine will be participating, together with their
counterparts from NATO countries.

This is the third seminar of its kind, after similar events in June
1992 and January 1993. Participants will assess the results of the
cooperation programme initiated in January, which to date resulted in
more than 60 joint CFE Treaty inspections, of declared sites as well as
of major reductions of Treaty limited equipment (TLE), in joint
training courses and in sharing information stored on NATO's
verification data base.

The Seminar will be opened by the Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador
A. de Franchis. Ambassador Krasznai from Hungary, Ambassador Novak from
Poland, Ambassador Veenendaal of the Netherlands and LtGen Medvedev,
Head of Russia's Nuclear Risk Reduction Center will address
participants. Under the chairmanship of NATO's Assistant Secretary
General for Political Affairs, Ambassador Gebhardt VON MOLTKE,
participants will highlight experiences gained from approximately 450
inspections conducted during the Treaty's baseline validation period
(July to November 1992).  These inspections related to forces and
installations on the territories of 30 countries, and were carried out
either nationally or partly by teams composed of inspectors from
several nations. The Seminar will also discuss initial experiences
gained from reduction of conventional armaments. They will consider
detailed proposals already made by Allies for a future-oriented
programme of close cooperation.

NATO's Verification Co-ordinating Committee was established by the NATO
Council in May 1990. It is unique among NATO Committees in that it is
composed of representatives of Ministries of both Foreign Affairs and
Defence. It coordinates implementation of disarmament and arms control
agreements among Allies, provides a forum for a regular exchange of
views on related matters and manages cooperation in this field with
partner countries.

The CFE Treaty aims at providing increased stability in Europe at lower
levels of armament. To that end, more than 15,000 items of TLE have
already been destroyed during the last 16 months by the countries
participating in the Seminar, and their destruction certified by
inspections.

MEDIA OPPORTUNITY

On Wednesday, 17 November, at 14:30 hours, Room  Martino, NATO
Headquarters. Briefing by the VCC Chairman, Mr. Necil NED MO LU.