The period of so-called détente that followed produced further agreements on reducing armaments.

Without incentives to reduce armaments, the Soviets will continue their buildup.

Article 8 of the Covenant gave the League the task of reducing "armaments to the lowest point consistent with national safety and the enforcement by common action of international obligations."

Without this guarantee, they would not reduce armaments because they felt the risk of attack from Germany was too great.

He added: "While we're still far from realizing the biblical injunction to turn our swords into plowshares, we've made progress in reducing armaments and decreasing the threat of war.

The Warsaw Treaty states have addressed NATO and all European countries with a proposal on reducing armed forces and armaments to a level of reasonable sufficiency.

He believed that the extent of the League's success in reducing armaments would be the greatest test of its credibility.

This means that to reduce tensions, one side unilaterally initiates an action to reduce armaments in a way that does not threaten its basic security.

He said they had made "substantial progress" toward a treaty reducing conventional armaments, although his aides have said there was no significant movement on that issue.

And that's why our quest to safely reduce armaments has a special significance for the German people.