KYIV, June 14, 2011 (UKRINFORM). Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have successfully completed the first stage a project of the Trust Fund of NATO's Partnership for Peace program on the disposal of conventional ammunition, small arms and light weapons, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Volodymyr Omelyanchuk has said. He said that with the help of the NATO Trust Fund, 15,000 tons of surplus ammunition, 400,000 units of small arms and light weapons, as well as 1,000 man-portable air defense systems, had been disposed of in Ukraine since 2006. The Trust Fund allocated EUR 10.8 million for this stage of the project.
"These joint actions by Ukraine, NATO and its partners are a significant contribution to the nonproliferation of weapons in the world," Omelyanchuk said.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft, as a representative of a leading state in the framework of the project, in turn, said he hoped that the Ukrainian government would soon take a positive decision and sign an agreement on the second stage of the project. The Trust Fund's contribution for the second stage will be about EUR 25 million. At this stage it is planned to dispose of 76,000 tons of ammunition, 366,000 units of small arms and 3 million antipersonnel mines. The project of the Trust Fund of NATO's Partnership for Peace program is aimed at demilitarizing 133,000 tons of ammunition and 1.5 million units of small arms and light weapons in Ukraine within 12 years in four stages. The project was launched at Ukraine's request.
0 comments:
Post a Comment