MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The quadrilateral working group comprising representatives of Russia, the U.S., Great Britain and Canada discussed funding of the chemical weapons destruction facility in the town of Shchuchye in the Kurgan region and several other issues pertaining to implementation of the Russian chemical disarmament program, deputy head of the Federal Industry Agency Viktor Kholstov said on Friday.
"The group held its session in Moscow under Canada's chairmanship," Kholstov, who heads the Russian delegation to the session, told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Participants in the event discussed compliance with the schedule of construction of the Shchuchye facility's engineering, technical and social infrastructure, as well as its industrial zone. They also considered draft amendments to the federal purpose-oriented program of chemical weapons destruction in Russia, the state of information backing of the chemical disarmament process, and other issues.
Kholstov said that the draft of the amended program has gone through required coordination with interested agencies and ministries and is being prepared for submission to the Russian government. "The proposed amendments concern correction of stages and terms of chemical weapons destruction proceeding from the real progress in the program's implementation and taking into account the economic situation in Russia and the volume of foreign aid," he said.
"Implementation of developed proposals provides for creating a system of seven chemical weapons destruction facilities, with the focus on construction of top-priority facilities in Kambarka in the Udmurtian autonomous republic and in the village of Maradykovsky in the Kirov region. Their commissioning will make it possible to meet the deadline for the second stage of the chemical weapons destruction program set, which provides for disposing of 20 percent (8,000 tonnes of chemical weapons stocks in 2007), and to start implementing the third stage of nerve gases destruction," Kholstov noted.
"The draft updated program provides for destroying stocks," he added. This technological cycle was not included in the previous program.
The working group was set up in 2003 to coordinate international cooperation in the construction of the chemical weapons destruction facility in Shchuchye.
"The number of countries assisting Russia in the facility's construction has grown in the past two years, and at the moment the construction involves seven nations: the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand, and Switzerland. In addition, other nations, such as Norway and the Czech Republic, as well as the European Union, take part in the funding of specific construction objects. That is why coordination and interaction between the participants in the project, which is to be implemented in 2008, gain more and more importance," Kholstov said.