LONDON: The United States, the Soviet Union, China, Britain and France have agreed to share information with one another about their sales of weaponry to the Middle East, the New York Times reported.
The U.S. assistant secretary of state for politico-military affairs, Richard A. Clarke, said the five countries also had agreed on guidelines Friday for the export of conventional weapons anywhere in the world.
“This is a major breakthrough, the first time in history that five great powers have agreed on rules governing their export of arms”, including tanks, artillery, military aircraft, ships and some missile systems, Clarke said at the end of a two-day meeting at Lancaster House.
The guidelines result from an agreement among most of the five countries that the uncontrolled race to sell arms to Iraq had back-fired on them when the Persian Gulf “War began last winter. The five countries account for about 85% of all arms exports.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 25, 1991
