Meeting of the NATO Science Committee with Cooperation Partners in Budapest - 23-24 March 1995

On March 23-24 the NATO Science Committee will hold its annual meeting with Cooperation Partners in Budapest, Hungary. This represents the first formal gathering of the NATO Science Committee in a country outside the NATO Alliance. All of NATO's Cooperation Partners, i.e. countries that once comprised the Warsaw Treaty Organization, are expected to send representatives. In addition, Finland and Sweden will send observers.

The meeting will be chaired by the NATO Assistant
Secretary General for Scientific and Environmental
Affairs, Dr. Jean-Marie Cadiou. Nations will be
represented by leaders of academies of science, state
committees on science and technology, ministries of
science and senior academic officials. Hungarian
representation is expected to include Mr. Laszlo Pal,
Hungary's Minister of Industry and Trade and Dr. Istvan
Bihari, Chairman of the Council of the National Committee
for Technological Development.

Participants will exchange information about NATO's
programme of scientific cooperation and will discuss how
scientific and technological infrastructures once built up
to meet defence needs, can now be put to effective use in
the civilian sector. Leading the latter discussion will
be Mr. Lajos Nyiri,
President of Hungary's National Committee for
Technological Development,
Mr. Andrey G. Fonotov, First Deputy Minister of Science
and Technology of the Russian Federation, Mrs. Pauline
Newman, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals and
Dr. Hans Ambos, Senior Vice President, of Daimler-Benz
Aerospace AG.

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NATO cooperative programmes in science are currently
concentrated on questions related to (1) the dismantlement
and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, (2)
environmental security including the reclamation of
contaminated military sites and cleanup technologies, (3)
the transfer of military science and technology to the
civilian sector, (4) science policy and (5) computer
networking.

Last year over 1500 scientists from Cooperation Partner
countries participated in the various seminars and
collaborative research activities sponsored under
this Programme. Cooperation Partner scientists, some of
whom came from the once "secret cities" of the former
Soviet Union, were able to work with colleagues in Western
Europe and North America in a way that was either
very difficult or even impossible during the cold war.

Young scientists also benefitted from the Programme which
has allowed over 240 scientists from Cooperation Partners
NATO to study in each other's countries.

The meeting is supported by the NATO Division of
Scientific and Environmental Affairs. Journalists wishing
more information on this meeting should call
+32 2 728-4207.