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The Federal Foreign Office is putting 4 million euros towards securing and destroying nuclear, biological and chemical weapons
In Iraq the Federal Foreign Office is contributing 2 million euros to the destruction of old chemical weapons that are a legacy of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons programme. The funds support both a laboratory in Iraq with modern detection and analysis equipment as well as the training of Iraqi experts in Germany.
In Belarus the Federal Foreign Office has committed 2 million euros to securing nuclear material. Advanced technologies from Germany are to prevent nuclear material from falling into the wrong hands. This protects the civilian population in Belarus, but also in Germany and the European Union.
Rolf Nikel, Federal Government Commissioner for Disarmament and Arms Control, issued the following statement:
“Securing and destroying nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in Iraq and Belarus is another element of our commitment to disarmament and humanity.
Over the past decade, the Federal Foreign Office has spent approximately half a billion euros on securing and destroying weapons. That shows what great importance we attach to arms control and disarmament.”
Within the framework of the “Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction”, the Federal Foreign Office has made around 500 million euros available over the past ten years. These funds went especially to projects to destroy chemical weapons and to prevent terrorists from gaining access to weapons-grade nuclear material in Russia.