Struggle against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to have legal basis

The problem of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction should be solved on a legal basis, "without random picking of rogue states", said the Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Alexander Yakovenko ahead of the G8 foreign ministers' meeting in Paris due on May 22-23.

"The attempts to fight against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by using force or by threat of force will only speed up the arms race and make it regional," the diplomat believes. Moscow intends to advocate this approach when discussing the problems related to Iran and North Korea, he emphasized.

Counteraction to weapons proliferation is "the major task of all international community with consideration to the possibility of higher terrorist activity after the Iraqi events", Yakovenko pointed out.

According to the spokesman, the G8 foreign ministers' meeting will focus on key international and regional problems, including non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and fight against terrorism. The participants will also discuss the situation around Iraq, the Middle East settlement, the North Korean military nuclear programme, the situation in Afghanistan, the Indian-Pakistani relations and other regional issues. The ministers will prepare proposals on the specified problems to be considered at the G8 summit in Evian on June 1-3.

Russia is trying to increase G8 joint influence on the processes of establishing state system and restoring economy in Afghanistan, to intensify its efforts to prevent drug trafficking from this country to other areas, Yakovenko pointed out.

On the Russian initiative the participants will consider possible measures to counteract drug trafficking that threatens interior security of both Afghanistan and its neighbour states, and encourages a larger drug flow even to Russia.

Touching upon Indian-Pakistani settlement, Yakovenko emphasized that Moscow intended to convince G8 to make Islamabad cease terrorists' penetration to Jammu and Kashmir across the Control line. This would create a basis to resume the dialog between the two states, Russia believes.