Scotsman.com 10/22/04

The Czech Republic has reaffirmed its support for a UK-led international project helping Russia destroy its lethal chemical weapons stocks.

At a ceremony in London today, Stefan Fule, the Czech Ambassador to the UK, pledged a further £40,000 towards the construction of a chemical weapons destruction facility at Shchuch'ye in the Urals. It follows a similar donation last year.

Russia has the world's largest declared stockpile of chemical weapons. More than 40,000 tonnes, mostly consisting of modern nerve agents, is stored at seven sites in the west of the country.

Destruction of these stocks is a key requirement of the Chemical Weapons Convention, and an important plank in the global fight against WMD proliferation.

Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces Minister, said:

"I warmly welcome this further Czech contribution as an important step in strengthening international co-operation to destroy chemical weapons. We look forward to working closely with our international partners in implementing this assistance."

The new funds will be spent further developing the Shchuch'ye chemical weapons destruction facility. The international project, which also has support from Canada and New Zealand, has already provided water supplies and an electrical substation to support the facility.

The project will be managed as part of the UK MOD's assistance programme, under the terms of a UK-Russia bilateral Agreement.

Notes to editors

1. The UK Government decided in 2000 to contribute up to £12M, phased over 3 years, for high priority chemical demilitarisation and biological non-proliferation projects in Russia.

2. Assistance with Russian chemical weapon destruction is a key element of the G8 Global Partnership against the spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction. The UK has announced that it will contribute up to US 750M over the ten years of the Global Partnership, and that up to US 100M (£70M) of this will be made available to assist Russia with the destruction of its chemical weapon (CW) stockpile.

3. The priority for UK assistance is support for construction of a key Russian chemical weapons destruction facility at Shchuch'ye, in the Urals. Nearly 2 million artillery munitions, containing lethal nerve agents, will be destroyed there.

5. The UK's first project was the construction of the water supply for the Shchuch'ye destruction facility. This project was completed on budget in spring 2003 at a cost of over £2M.

6. The UK's second project--the procurement of electricity supply equipment for a sub-station serving the Shchuch'ye CW destruction facility--is due to be complete by the end of 2004. It is being jointly funded by the UK, Norway, the EU and the Czech Republic at a total cost of over £7M (c. 10M).

7. The UK plans to carry out further projects at Shchuch'ye, jointly with Canada, New Zealand and other donors. These will include procuring processing equipment for one of the buildings in which chemical warfare agents and munitions will be destroyed. The Czech Republic contribution will be used to fund one or more of this set of projects.

8. Several states are committed to providing support to Russia to help it meet its obligations to destroy its chemical weapons stocks, including the US, Germany, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand and Switzerland, as well as the European Union.

9. For further information contact Charlie Morton at the Defence Press Office on 020 7218 5903. Visit the MoD website at www.mod.uk