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| Updated: 08-Jul-2005 | NATO Press Releases |
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Press Release (2005)090 8 July 2005 |
NATO-Russia Council seminar on On 6-7 July 2005, a Seminar of nuclear experts, convened under the auspices of the NATO-Russia Council, was held at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The event was attended by senior staff members and experts dealing with nuclear policy issues from NRC nations' Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, national Delegations at NATO HQ, NATO Military Authorities and NATO International Staff. The primary purpose was to provide a forum for participants from NRC member nations to gain further insight into, and to exchange views on, the role of nuclear weapons in nuclear weapon states’ national doctrines and strategies as well as in the Alliance’s Strategic Concept, taking into account the evolving security environment for both NATO and the Russian Federation. The Seminar was part of a continuing NATO-Russian dialogue on nuclear weapons issues, as laid out in the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act and the 2002 Rome Declaration on mutual cooperation between NATO and the Russian Federation. The Seminar was one of the events implemented as part of a number of confidence and security building measures between NATO and Russia on nuclear weapon issues. A similar NRC Seminar on nuclear weapon safety and security was held in The Hague, The Netherlands, in April 2002. More recently, NATO and Russia decided on the mutual attendance of a series of nuclear weapon accident response field exercises. The first one, AVARIYA 2004, was held in Russia in August 2004; the next one, Exercise SENATOR 2005, will be hosted by the UK in September 2005. The overall theme of this Seminar dealt with NATO and national NRC nuclear weapons states' nuclear doctrine and strategy. It provided for each of the four NRC nuclear powers (France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States) and NATO to present comprehensive summaries of their respective current nuclear doctrines. The objectives of the meeting were fully met. Nuclear experts had candid and open exchanges of views on nuclear doctrine and related issues, aimed at enhancing mutual understanding, openness and transparency in this field. |
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