Constant principles guide France's actions in the areas of arms control and disarmament: to build a safer world and a fairer international order founded on the rule of law and collective security, to prevent threats to peace, to respect the right to self defence, to repudiate the arms race and to move towards general and complete disarmament.
The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems is a real threat.
The fight against proliferation is an integral part of France's national security strategy and important actions have been taken over the past few years. In this area, France acts on the basis of multilateralism, standard-based processes and, when necessary, ad hoc initiatives such as the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) whose role is to intercept suspicious shipments.
In view of this growing threat, legal instruments such as prohibition agreements, their universalization and effective application, and multilateral cooperation regarding intelligence and enforcement are essential for the future of non-proliferation.
Many challenges are still to be taken up with regard to proliferation on a national and international level. Multilateral discussions must be intensified to introduce regulations which discourage proliferation.
As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a state which has nuclear weapons under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, France has specific responsibilities for the protection and strengthening of international peace and security.
One of the main issues in the fight against proliferation resides in controlling the export of goods and technology used in the development of weapons of mass destruction.
At the end of the cold war, Europe signed a treaty on conventional armed forces whose relevance cannot be called into question but which must, inevitably, adapt to Europe's new strategic state of affairs. The fight against nuclear proliferation cannot ignore conventional weapons so that major imbalances which are likely to encourage a new arms race as a substitute for the ownership of such weapons may be avoided.
The dissemination of light arms is also a threat for European Union member states: it increases the security risks of their nationals abroad as well as their armed forces which are entrusted with missions overseas; it is a source of supply for international terrorism and piracy