§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions have taken place with NATO members in the Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society regarding the monitoring of chemical leaks from chemical weapons stocks dumped in the Baltic after the second world war. [129098]
§ Mr. IngramI have been asked to reply.
Following a Norwegian-led NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS) Pilot Study on Cross Border Environmental Problems Emanating from Defence Related Installations and Activities, the Russian Government approached NATO in 1997 regarding possible cooperation in the monitoring and prevention of leakage of chemicals from German chemical weapons stocks sunk in the Baltic and Skagerrak after World War Two. A CCMS expert meeting on chemical weapons dumped in the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak took place in Oslo in 1997. A member of the British embassy in Oslo attended the meeting.
At that meeting, the Russian delegation gave preliminary information on recent environmental expeditions to the Baltic and Skagerrak. The Russian delegation proposed that a further CCMS expert meeting should be held before the end of 1997 to consider the full findings from the expeditions; and that a joint NATO- Russia expedition should be organised for 1998.
675WIt was the Ministry of Defence's understanding that CCMS was continuing to lead on this issue. However, we have now been advised that the Russian proposals were forwarded to the NATO Political Committee in 1997. That Committee rejected the proposals, stating that the results of the Russian expeditions and any plans for future expeditions should be conducted through, or as part of, the Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea.