JOINT PRESS RELEASE

SIGNING CEREMONY
OF THE SPECIAL VERIFICATION COMMISSION
Geneva, December 14, 2000

At the signing ceremony on December 14, 2000, in Geneva, at the Twenty-sixth Session of the Special Verification Commission (SVC), representatives of the United States of America, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine signed an amendment to the INF Treaty's Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).

Although the INF Treaty is of unlimited duration, the treaty's extensive inspection regime, including continuous monitoring at missile assembly plants at Magna, Utah, USA and Votkinsk, Udmurtia, Russia, will be concluded at midnight May 31, 2001. The newly-signed amendment provides principles and procedures for the completion of INF inspections by means of continuous monitoring.

The SVC is the forum for discussing implementation issues and agreeing upon measures to enhance the viability and effectiveness of the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of their Intermediate-range and Shorter-range Missiles, which entered into force in June 1988.