The UN General Assembly adopted the first ever arms trade control treaty (ATT), Reuters reported on Tuesday .

Representatives of 154 states voted for the adoption of the document, 3 delegations voted against, 23 abstained.

In the future, each country will have the opportunity to choose whether to ratify the treaty or not.

The treaty will reportedly come into force once 50 countries have ratified it. This may take approximately two years.

The adopted document became the first international treaty in history that establishes clear rules for controlling the arms trade in the world. It obliges states to exercise greater control over arms exports and prevent weapons from falling into the hands of terrorist groups.

The treaty controls all types of conventional weapons, including tanks, armored vehicles, combat aircraft and helicopters, warships, large-caliber artillery systems, missiles and missile launchers, small arms and light weapons.

The text of the treaty was drawn up following several rounds of negotiations between representatives of 193 states during a specially convened UN conference, which ended last week.

It was previously reported that Russia would abstain from voting on the treaty. “Today we cannot clearly speak out in support of him and will abstain from voting,” said the head of the Russian delegation, permanent representative Vitaly Churkin. At the same time, he said that there are many inaccuracies in the agreement, so Russia will determine its position on it later.

At the same time, Iran, Syria and North Korea voted against the document, believing that the agreement would allow the main arms exporters to dictate their terms.

The UN General Assembly adopted an arms trade treaty