§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)Members will wish to be aware of the publication on 16 December of the second annual report by the Government of the United Kingdom's contribution to the global partnership against the spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction. The second report details the progress made in the past 12 months in destroying and securing the former Soviet Union's legacies of WMD and associated materials and infrastructure.
The UK pledged 750 million dollars to the Global Partnership at the Kananaskis G8 Summit in 2002. Since then the FCO, DTI, and MoD in close co-operation with the Russian Federation, other countries of the former Soviet Union, central and eastern Europe and other funding partners, have developed a wide portfolio of programmes and made considerable progress on implementing projects on the ground which help to tackle these issues. In 2005, the UK in its capacity as G8 president intends to take forward the work of the global partnership under the theme of "Pledges to Progress", focusing on effective project implementation.
The international community faces immense challenges in tackling the legacy of cold war weapons of mass destruction left in the former Soviet Union. The cold war WMD programmes in the FSU have created a significant non-proliferation and environmental threat to us all. This work represents the UK's largest non-proliferation programme and, as the report indicates, we have made significant progress over the last 12 months in collaboration both with other donor nations and our partners in the FSU.
Copies of the report are available in the Library of the House. Further reports will be published annually setting out the progress achieved in the work being undertaken by the United Kingdom.