I am delighted to be able to sign this MOU, another indicator of the real progress that is being made on the massive task of destroying Russian CW stocks. During my time here, I have seen real progress and real change across this area. I want to highlight three aspects: progress by Russia; progress by the U.K.; and progress by the wider international community, exemplified by Canada.

I will take Russia first, as the declared possessor, with responsibility for destruction of its CW stocks. During the last three years we have seen a number of major changes for the better, the most important of which has been the increased political priority given to the destruction program. Indeed, I am aware that President Putin takes a personal interest in the program. Russian political commitment has taken a number of tangible forms.

The State Commission on Chemical Disarmament, under former prime minister Sergei Kirienko has been created.
Responsibility for chemical weapons destruction was transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the Russian Munitions Agency [RMA], with much greater focus and commitment.
I understand that Russia spent around $170 million (US) on CW destruction in 2002, and that projected Russian spending for 2003 is at a similar level: this is a very substantial contribution, though of course it needs to be increased further.
The destruction facility at Gorny was completed and the first 1 percent of Russian stocks were destroyed there by April this year.
The RMA has made considerable progress, providing the electricity, gas and water supplies for the destruction facility at Shchuch'ye, as well as housing for the workforce, new schools and improvements to the hospital.
The RMA has also begun construction of the second destruction line, inside the U.S.-funded facility at Shchuch'ye.
And under Director-General Kholstov we have seen further improvement in the closeness and effectiveness of the working relations with the RMA, which we had started to develop under Dr. Pak. This was exemplified by the first informal coordination meeting yesterday involving the four partners most closely involved at Shchuch'ye. Such a partnership is fundamental to the timely delivery of worthwhile projects in support of the Russian program.

Turning to the U.K., it is now just over three years since we announced the intention to provide up to £12 million for CW destruction and biological non-proliferation projects in Russia. Since then, we have:

signed a bilateral treaty with Russia, covering the general principles of our assistance program, which has been used as a model by other donors;
agreed on an Implementation Arrangement with the RMA covering the details of implementing projects;
completed our first project, the water supply for Shchuch'ye, which I formally handed over to Dr. Pak at a ceremony at the British embassy earlier this year; and
started our second project--procurement of electrical equipment for Shchuch'ye--with funding not only from the U.K., but also from Norway, the EU and the Czech Republic. I hope that the new Annex to the Implementation Arrangement will be signed very soon, so that we can press ahead with this project.

Let me now turn to the wider international effort. Three years ago, the U.S. and Germany were almost alone in having well-developed and funded assistance programs. A number of other states were still trying to penetrate the Russian bureaucracy sufficiently to be able to start delivering assistance.

A number of us have succeeded in making progress in the intervening years, including the U.K., Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and the EU. But the major development has of course been the G8 Global Partnership, launched under the Canadian presidency at Kananaskis in June last year. This has led to a step change in the level of funding offered by G8 partners. The U.K. has announced up to US$750 million, Italy some €1 billion, Germany €1.5 billion, and Canada C$1 billion.

These pledges are now being translated into concrete projects. Canada was understandably keen to start delivering real assistance on the ground as soon as practicable and, in the absence of appropriate bilateral arrangements between Canada and Russia, the U.K. is delighted to be able to assist by implementing Canada's first project. The specific project --construction of the railway--is the most vital element of the supporting infrastructure still to be completed.

The British Minister for the Armed Forces, Adam Ingram, has asked me to say that he warmly welcomes this Canadian initiative as a further important step in strengthening international cooperation to destroy chemical weapons. It is a very positive development for the G8 Global Partnership against the spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction, which was launched at the G8 Summit in Canada in 2002.

To conclude, the U.K. and Canada have each already undertaken a number of projects to assist Russia in dealing with the legacy of the Cold War. This will be our biggest project yet in the field of chemical weapons destruction. We look forward to working closely in partnership with our Canadian and Russian colleagues in implementing this project.