order to bring about the total banning of nuclear tests, we must start by making the necessary joint efforts to reduce nuclear weapons on our planet gradually until we have eliminated them. We hope that during 1990 it will finally be possible to ratify the two treaties of 1974 and 1976 on the limitation of nuclear explosions for peaceful uses. There is a non-proliferation issue which gives cause for concern: the proliferation of ballistic missiles with not only a conventional or chemical capability but also a nuclear capability. Spain is a party to the missile technology control régime and we hope that all countries with a technological capability in this area - not only European countries, but those belonging to any continent - will also join. I think that today, in the light of certain news items we have been reading about in the newspapers in the last few days and of which we have direct knowledge, we have reasons to be very concerned about the possible use of this kind of missile in regional conflicts, so that it is worthwhile to reiterate with the greatest vigour the appeal for the universal adoption of measures in this area of missile proliferation. On strategic nuclear disarmament we hope that the signing this year of the START agreement, the delinking of the negotiations on defence and space between the United States and the Soviet Union and the START negotiations, will permit very considerable progress. It is our view that in this universal dimension of disarmament of which we are speaking, in the same way that European conventional disarmament has its foundations in the confidence­ building measures adopted in Stockholm, the universal disarmament process requires regional or universal confidence-building measures. And if we accept the idea that there should be regional or universal confidence-building 
**Analysis**
The text primarily focuses on the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons, discussing treaties, agreements, and measures to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles. It also touches on the idea of confidence-building measures in the context of disarmament. Given the technical and political nature of the topic, it is likely that the text falls under a category related to international relations and security.

**Category**
International relations, Science and technology