documents essential to the destiny of the world: treaties on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and on their non-deployment on the sea-bed and the ocean floor, and conventions prohibiting bacteriological weapons and modification of the environment for military purposes. We are close to completing work on a convention banning chemical weapons. However, if the results of the work of the Conference are objectively and self-critically assessed, in accordance with today's exacting criteria, there is no way they can be called particularly successful. The last time an agreement was worked out within the framework of the Conference was in 1977. Since then the stocks of weapons on our planet, of course, have not diminished but have grown even further. There have emerged completely new problems relating to the spread of the arms race both into new technologies and into various regions of the world. On the other hand, it is obvious that fundamentally new prospects for disarmament are now opening up. This has to do with the end of the post-war period of confrontation and with the emerging shift from a block model of security to a qualitatively different world in which relations between States are based on common, all-European and, in the longer term, universal structures and institutions. We have been convinced yet again that events are indeed developing in this direction by the results of the London summit meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the NATO countries. We consider the decisions adopted there as a positive response to the call made by the parties to the Warsaw Treaty to begin the process of transforming the two military alliances into political organizations and we see in them a readiness on the part of the 
**Analysis**
The text discusses international agreements and conferences related to disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons, specifically nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. It also mentions the transformation of military alliances into political organizations, indicating a shift in international relations. Given the focus on international security and disarmament, it is likely that the text falls under a category related to global governance and international relations.

**Category**
International relations, Science and technology