Press Release (96)46 22 Mar 1996

Russian Science Minister meets with NATO Science Committee 20-22 March 1996 Russian Minister of Science and Technology Boris Saltykov met earlier this week with the NATO Science Committee in an encounter which highlighted an intense programme of scientific cooperation between NATO and Russia. This meeting underscored a dimension of Alliance activity in which NATO and Russia have found much of common interest including important scientific issues posed by the redeployment of defence-related skills and technologies after the end of the Cold War, by environmental challenges and by the development of high technologies for civil uses. The NATO Science Committee has been at the forefront of NATO efforts to reach out to its former adversaries by increasing their opportunities to become integrated into the international scientific community. Mr. Saltykov and members of the Science Committee exchanged views on these issues and agreed to intensify their dialogue in the coming months to be reflected at a later stage in a Memorandum of Understanding. Separately the Science Committee met together with key representatives of all NATO Cooperation Partner and Partnership for Peace countries. These included the Secretary General of the Academy of Sciences of Latvia, the Chairman of the Science Council of Lithuania, the President of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, the Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Scientific Research of Poland, the Secretary of State for Research and Technology of Romania, the Under Secretary of State for Science and Technology of Slovenia, the Scientific Secretaries General of the Academies of Sciences of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and for Ukraine, the Chairman of the State Committee for Science. Set up under the aegis of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, a programme which last year involved the participation of well over 1500 leading non-NATO scientists in NATO-sponsored activities was discussed together with plans for cooperative activities in the coming months. For further information, please contact the office of NATO Assistant Secretary General for Scientific and Environmental Affairs at Int'l (32-2)707 42 07 or fax: Int'l (32-2)707 46 25.