NIZHNY NOVGOROD. Sept 19 (Interfax-AVN) - Switzerland will support Russia's proposal to push back the deadline for the destruction of its chemical weapons to 2012 at the next conference of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague, the press service of presidential envoy to the Volga federal district Sergei Kiriyenko said on Thursday.
"An agreement on the issue was reached by Sergei Kiriyenko and Chief of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Joseph Deiss on Wednesday," a press service official told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Kiriyenko, who also chairs the Russian state commission on chemical disarmament, made a one-day visit to Switzerland on Wednesday.
He arrived in Bern by an invitation from Swiss lawmakers who are members of the parliamentary group in support of the Green Cross. The group earlier proposed Switzerland's participation in the Russian program of chemical weapons destruction.
While staying in Bern, Kiriyenko met with the leaders of all factions and deputy groups in both houses of Swiss parliament. He addressed Swiss lawmakers and officials of interested ministries and departments.
"The discussion of the Swedish lawmakers' initiative also involved Thomas E. Kuenning Jr., director of Cooperative Threat Reduction for the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Kiriyenko met with Chief of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Joseph Deiss. The meetings took place in a positive atmosphere. Kiriyenko said he was hoping that the Swiss government would submit to parliament specific proposals on the plan of the country's participation in the Russian program of chemical weapons destruction already in the near future. According to a preliminary accord, the lower house of Swiss parliament will consider the initiative of their colleagues in December this year, and the upper house will discuss the document in March 2003," the press service official said.
Deiss voiced his support for Russia's actions in the chemical disarmament sphere and assured Kiriyenko that Switzerland would vote for pushing back the deadline for the chemical weapons destruction in Russia to 2012.
"A decision on the matter must be made during the OPCW conference that is to take place in the Hague in the first half of October," the official said.
"Under the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of All Types of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, Russia is to destroy all declared chemical weapons stocks before April 29, 2007. However the document envisages a possibility to extend the destruction terms for five years, for which an approval of an OPCW conference is needed," the official noted.