RUSSIA CALLS ON ALL STATES TO FOLLOW ITS EXAMPLE OF NOT BEING THE FIRST TO DEP0LOY WEAPONS IN OUTER SPACE

MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti)-As the work of the UN General Assembly's first committee was in progress, Russia declared its intention not to be the first to deploy weapons in outer space and called upon other countries to follow its example, the Russian foreign ministry's spokesman Alexander Yakovenko says in his communique for the mass media.

"The discussion on outer space subjects displayed the world community's growing awareness of the hazards to be provoked by the deployment of striking weapons in the near-earth space," says the foreign ministry.

As a result the traditional resolution on the prevention of the arms race in outer space harvested a record number of supporters (167) with none voting against it, noted Yakovenko.

The committee also adopted a joint Russian-American draft resolution on bilateral cuts of strategic nuclear armaments, which confirms the paramount significance of Russian-American partnership for maintaining world security and strategic stability.

Besides, the committee approved the Russia-advanced resolution on information sciences and telecommunications in the context of world security.

This is evidence that the problem of international information security in application to civil and military spheres is very topical today, concluded Yakovenko.