But the change thus begun must not cause us to lose sight of a number of fundamental facts that remain. The first is the considerable disproportion between the forces of the two greatest Powers and those of a country such as France. As the Minister for Foreign Affairs of China remarked in this very room last February, the elimination of half of their strategic nuclear forces would still leave the United States and the Soviet Union with over 90 per cent of the world's nuclear arsenal. France therefore welcomes the prospects held out by the future START agreement and described in the Conference on Disarmament by the two negotiators of that agreement. However, it also and especially approves the two countries' undertaking to continue their talks beyond the START-I treaty, with a view to further reductions and measures aiming at strategic stability. As the President of the French Republic recently reiterated, "... when the time comes, France will not be the last to disarm". That time will draw nearer as fast as the well-known conditions which France introduced in the United Nations in 1983 are complied with, that is, a change of nature in the gap between our strategic forces and those of the United States and the USSR, the halting of the race for defensive technologies, the elimination of conventional imbalances and the total prohibition of chemical weapons. In addition to the quantitative disproportions, another constant fact to be borne in mind is the difference in nuclear doctrines. That of France has always been not to win a war which has broken out, but instead to prevent the outbreak of war. To quote the President of the Republic, nuclear arms can only be "arms for non-use, diplomatic weapons of balance and resistance to all 
**Analysis**
The text appears to be a diplomatic statement or a speech discussing international relations, disarmament, and nuclear weapons. It highlights the importance of strategic stability and the need for further reductions in nuclear forces, while also emphasizing the differences in nuclear doctrines between countries. The text also references specific treaties and agreements, indicating a focus on international politics.

**Category**
International relations, Science and technology