Brussels, 02/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - In a declaration adopted at the 31 May and 1 June meeting in Krakow to mark the first anniversary of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), the EU has reasserted its full commitment to combat weapons of mass destruction and their perpetrators. The active implementation of the strategy against weapons of mass destruction adopted on 12 December 2003 by the European Council is the concrete proof of this commitment, notes the declaration, which points out that the EU strategy includes a certain number of measures to prevent, dissuade, stop and if possible eliminate proliferation programmes that are causing concern throughout the world. One of the measures aims to improve identification, control and interception of illegal traffic in these weapons, explains the declaration.
The EU has reiterated its full commitment to Resolution 1540 adopted in 2004 by the UN Security Council on non-proliferation and which recognises the need to improve co-ordination of efforts at a national, sub-regional, regional and international level in order to develop a global response to the threat to international security.
The EU and Member States note that complementarity between the main PSI objective and the strategy adopted by the EU in December 2003, which according to them, could represent an efficient basis for preventing and stopping the traffic in weapons of mass destruction. The EU and Member States are therefore committed to contributing to the initiative.
On 31 May Russia announced that it agreed to sign up to the PSI, which allows for missiles or other elements that could be used in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction (in the air, at sea or on land) to be seized. Russia was the only G8 country to not have signed up to this US initiative.