22 September - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE VISIT TO MOSCOW

The STC delegation, led by Committee Chairman Michael Mates (United Kingdom) and General Rapporteur Pierre Claude Nolin (Canada), welcomed the frank and open discussions with Russian parliamentarians, officials and independent analysts. Russian participants stressed that their country's foreign policy philosophy is based on the notion that current international problems should be solved using the existing international mechanisms or even by creating new ones, for instance, to regulate activities in space. Therefore, Russia supports the strengthening and universalisation of the non-proliferation agreements such as the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) or the Biological Weapons Convention. At the same time, the Russian authorities seem to endorse initiatives of international nuclear co-operation with India, which is not a member of the NPT.

On the issue of Iran, there is an evident consensus in Russia that Moscow will not support any sanctions against the Iranian regime. Russian speakers also suggested that Iran could abandon its industrial-scale uranium enrichment plans provided the US government agrees to recognise the current Iranian regime. Members of the STC, however, expressed their belief that a policy of indulgence would send a wrong signal and undermine the credibility of the NPT.

The NATO legislators also visited the Russian Cosmonauts Training Center "Zvezdny gorodok" ("Star City") and were impressed by the achievements of the Russian space programme. At the center, they also discussed the challenging issue of the space debris. The concerted efforts of the international community are necessary in order to mitigate this problem, which could seriously harm human activities in space.