10 January 2003 00:00
ALEXANDER YAKOVENKO, THE OFFICIAL SPOKESMAN OF RUSSIA'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ANSWERS RUSSIAN MEDIA QUESTIONS ABOUT THE G8 GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT AGAINST THE SPREAD OF WEAPONS AND MATERIALS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, REACHED AT KANANASKIS
Question: Could you describe the G8 Global Partnership agreement against the spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction?
Answer: The agreement was reached at the G8 summit held in Kananaskis, Canada, on June 26-27, 2002. It is about the provision to Russia and other CIS countries within ten years of up to 20 billion US dollars for solving tasks in nonproliferation, disarmament, counter-terrorism and nuclear security. The rough amounts of financing for the Global Partnership up to the year 2012 (in billions of US dollars) are: US 10, United Kingdom 0.75, Canada 0.65, Japan 0.2; (in billions of euros): Germany 1.5, Italy 1.0, France 0.75, and the European Union 1.0. The Western countries showed readiness to provide financial and economic assistance in such priority areas for Russia as chemical weapons destruction and the disposal of decommissioned nuclear submarines.
Question: Did the Russian side put forward any proposals within the framework of this agreement?
Answer: Talks were held with all the G8 participants. Russian agencies had prepared and handed over to partners their specific proposals for cooperation in the destruction of chemical weapons and the disposal of nuclear submarines.
Question: What can you say about Russia's fulfillment of the obligations it had assumed at Kananaskis?
Answer: Corresponding work has been carried out at the national level. Russia set up a mechanism for the coordination of cooperation under the Global Partnership with Mikhail Kasyanov, Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, at the head. In each concerned department an official representative has been designated at a deputy minister's level who is responsible for the implementation of Global Partnership projects. The Government of the Russian Federation, moreover, has taken a decision on the steady financing of this program, which within the next ten years will amount to at least 2 billion US dollars. Incidentally, this is the second place after the US in amount. In 2003, the allocation of more than 204 million US dollars from Russia's budget is envisaged for top-priority projects.
Question: How do you view the progress in the implementation of the Global Partnership agreement? What's your perception of its prospects under France as President of the G8?
Answer: The implementation of the Global Partnership agreement has acquired noticeable positive dynamics during Canada's G8 presidency. We hope that with the passage of the presidency to France on January 1, 2003, joint work will receive additional impetus. The first line in the implementation of the Kananaskis accords is the G8 summit to be held in Evian, France, where we must all come with concrete results.
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