wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Russia and United States "nuclear transparency" commended by WCC

[WCC media <media@wcc-coe.org>]

>World Council of Churches - News

RUSSIA AND UNITED STATES "NUCLEAR TRANSPARENCY" COMMENDED BY WCC

>For immediate release: 08 April 2010

"The new US-Russia nuclear arms reduction treaty signed today in  Prague
is news that the World Council of Churches has awaited for a long  time:
the achievement of a nuclear weapons agreement between the two most
heavily armed nations in the world," WCC general secretary Rev.  Dr Olav
Fykse Tveit said, commenting on the signing of the New Strategic  Arms
Reduction Treaty (New START) by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev  and US
President Barack Obama in Prague, 8 April 2010.

Tveit stressed that "the most promising element of their success  is in also
agreeing to be more open about their respective nuclear arsenals.  If the
world’s most powerful states practice new levels of nuclear  transparency
and verification, as we hope they will, they will be able to bring  new
leadership and hope to bear on a range of nuclear arms problems."

Full text of the statement by the WCC general secretary (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=6a704c12e47708d34dfd )

WCC project: Churches engaged for nuclear arms control (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=4d4d094e9453ab4d67b2 )

WCC Central Committee, September 2009: Statement of hope in a year  of
opportunity: seeking a nuclear-weapon-free world (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=43efb783e3db32fa35d5 )

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,  witness and 
service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship  of churches 
founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560  million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the  Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse  Tveit, from 
the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.