MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian and Canadian officials discussed prospects for bilateral cooperation in chemical disarmament and joint projects in the sphere of chemical weapons destruction on Thursday.
Russia was represented by Director General of the Russian Ammunition Agency Zinovy Pak. The Canadian delegation was led by Alan Pool, chief of the Canadian section of the Global Partnership program, the press service of the Ammunition Agency told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
Canada is among the main partners in the Russian program for safe storage and destruction of chemical weapons, Pak was quoted as saying.
Russia and Canada signed an intergovernmental agreement on chemical weapons destruction in November 2002. The document provided for allocating CAD5m (USD3.28m) for destruction of Russia's chemical weapons stocks.
In 2003, Canada said it was ready to provide financial aid for destroying Russia's chemical weapons starting from April this year.
At the Cananaskis summit, Canada announced its decision to allocate at least CAD659m (USD426.43m) for the Global Partnership program over a period of 10 years.
The accords give Russia an opportunity to amend the concept of its chemical weapons destruction program, Pak said. Thanks to it, the country will be possible to implement the program fully on time.
"We are choosing cheaper and quicker ways of destroying chemical weapons. This must be done because of tough deadlines for implementing obligations concerning recycling of chemical weapons stocks, and because of a new wave of terrorism, whose initiators see an enormous potential for their inhumane and destructive activity in chemical weapons," Pak said.
The Cananaskis agreement aimed at non-proliferation of weapons and materials of mass destruction gave a new impulse to the activity of the nations in the sphere of joint threat reduction, Pool said. Canada, which chairs the G-8 group of leading industrialized nations in 2002, took active measures to contribute to non-proliferation programs, he added.
Given that support of projects in the Global Partnership framework will require large investments from Canada, its delegation arrived in Russia to discuss details of the projects, primarily in the sphere of chemical weapons recycling.
The parties to the meeting agreed that Canada will consider the funding of the full cycle of building a chemical weapons scrapping facility. The project provides for building infrastructure (roads, gas pipelines, water supplies, electric power lines), erecting industrial buildings, producing and procuring technical equipment.
The parties stated full understanding in all issues under discussion and fixed the plan of further events in the sphere of chemical disarmament.