MOSCOW. April 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Zinovy Pak, the head of the Russian Ammunition Agency, and European Commission members have discussed joining forces in recycling chemical weapons, the agency's press service told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
Germany is a frontrunner among European countries in the implementation of the Kananaskis agreements. Germany's allocation of EUR29.7m was channeled to the future plant for recycling military poisons in Kambarka. The construction will begin this year, Pak said at the meeting.
The Russian Ammunition Agency conducted bilateral talks with representatives of France, Italy, Britain and Canada this year. Russia's proposal that the countries should build different facilities for recycling chemical weapons at stockpile locations was discussed at the talks.
Furthermore, the United States will disburse an additional USD167.9m for the construction of a plant in Shchuchye, where the construction of the industrial section will begin in the near future. The United States supported Russia's initiative to conduct the first stage of recycling at stockpile locations.
Participants in the meeting noted that there are many problems in implementing joint agreements and they are very hard to solve. In particular, some European nations require compliance with some formalities in implementing agreements and treaties, which has resulted in a few failures to meet deadlines for equipment supplies and facilities commissioning.
Pak briefed European Commission members on the work of Russia's first chemical weapons destruction facility in Gorny, Saratov region. The facility destroyed over 350t of yperite as of April 10, 2003.
A commission spokesman praised the activity of managers of Russia's federal purpose-oriented program in meeting international obligations in the chemical disarmament sphere. He said he was sure that Russia would meet the deadline for destroying 400t of chemical weapons, which is one percent of its stockpiles.
It is nice to know that the Gorny facility was created with the help of the European Union, the spokesman said.
Participants in the meeting discussed the project of the EU involvement in the construction of the Kambarka facility for chemical weapons destruction in 2003. The EU allocated EUR2m for this purpose last year. They also considered EU funding for chemical weapons destruction in Russia, which is expected to amount to EUR3m-4m this year.