The treaty-signing demonstrates yet again that Britain increasingly looks to the EU and multilateral institutions as its closest partners, not the U.S., which Brown earlier in the year pointedly called Britain's most important bilateral relationship.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Waning "Special Relationship?"

The substitution of four states for one in this bilateral 1972 treaty would convert it to a multilateral treaty.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: What ABM Treaty?

We believe, moreover, that the Bush Administration's stances on such treaties reflect a clear-eyed assessment of the real limits of diplomacy with nations that do not honor their commitments, that deliberately conceal their activities so as to defeat verification and that seek to use bilateral and multilateral agreements as instruments of asymmetric warfare against nations like the United States that abide by their treaty obligations.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Security experts urge Bolton confirmation