UNITED NATIONS, June 3 (UPI) -- A treaty regulating the global arms trade opened for signature Monday at the United Nations, with the United States hailing it as a positive control of weapons.
"We look forward to signing it as soon as the process of conforming the official translations is completed," a statement from the U.S. State Department read.
The treaty will require strict controls between international buyers and sellers of conventional weapons, controls of the kind to which the United States already adheres, the State Department said.
Christine Beerli, vice president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, referred to the availability of the treaty as an "historic occasion. States have never before signed an international treaty that regulated the arms trade, with the express purpose of reducing human suffering."
