On Monday, June 3, Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman signed in New York the historic Treaty on International Trade in Arms, the first global agreement to limit conventional arms trafficking, one of the main sources of social violence and political instability in the world. Having been congratulated by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Timerman spoke in the afternoon before a United Nations plenary composed of ministers, deputy ministers and ambassadors who signed the treaty. Among them were also his peers from Finland and Estonia, Erkki Tuomioja and Urmas Paet, respectively. The Treaty was also signed by the Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations.

Since its inception, Argentina and Finland were part of the group of seven countries -fromed together with Australia, Costa Rica, Kenya, Japan and the United Kingdom- which, within the framework of the UN, promoted this initiative which demanded nearly eight years of sustained effort.

Speech of the Argentine Foreign Minister (in Spanish)