MOSCOW. Jan 30 (Interfax-AVN) - A visiting U.S. under secretary of state and a senior member of the Russian parliament discussed on Thursday prospects for the ratification of a Russian- U.S. program to dispose of Russian nuclear and chemical weapons.
The Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, otherwise known as the Nunn-Lugar Program, was signed in 1992 and was extended for seven years in 1999 but has not been ratified by the parliament of either country.
Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee, told reporters after meeting in Moscow with U.S. Under Secretary of State John Bolton that the program contained a point that could complicate its ratification.
He was referring to a provision that would relieve the United States from responsibility for possible nuclear damage resulting from weapons disposal.
Kosachyov said that, in the early 1990s, Russia accepted this provision, and that this enabled the country to safely remove its nuclear weapons from Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
But the past few years have seen the emergence of documents that offered "more progressive" formulas for joint responsibility, he said. They included a multilateral nuclear environmental program that was ratified by Russia in December 2003.
However, "the American side is insisting that the formula incorporated in 1992 should remain" or the program may become difficult to finance, he said.