MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. Russia is a proponent of preserving purely technical control of missile technologies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Russia’s accession to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).
"We stand for preserving a purely technical nature of this regime and for the priority accession to the list of participants of those countries that possess a considerable missile and space potential and are capable of making a tangible contribution to the implementation of MTCR goals and tasks," the Foreign Ministry said.
In 2021-2022, the commentary runs, Russia will take the rotating chairmanship of the regime upon a unanimous decision by the member countries.
"In the capacity of the MTCR president and as an individual nation we are going to press for preserving the effectiveness and further improvement of MTCR operation in the interests of the imperative goals of non-proliferation of missile technologies as WMD delivery vehicles," the commentary says.
Since its creation in 1987, the Russian Foreign Ministry says, the MTCR has won acclaim as a forum of great authority where on the basis of consensus and by means of effective integration of national approaches and expert potentials of the participating countries decisions are generated that constitute a tangible contribution to forming a reliable infrastructure of preventing the proliferation of WMD delivery vehicles.
Russia is one of the leading donors of information exchanges within the regime’s framework. It contributes heavily to the functioning of the group of experts on licensing and enforcement and participates actively in the group of technical experts for regular actualization of the list of goods and technologies under control, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
On the MTCR
The MTCR is an unofficial and voluntary association of countries sharing missile non-proliferation goals. Created in 1987, it unites 35 countries, including industrialized ones.
The goal of the MTCR is to resist the proliferation of technologies of creating WMD delivery vehicles. The ban applies to missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or other delivery vehicles capable of carrying a payload of 500 kilograms at a distance of 300 kilometers or more. The MTCR members achieve this goal by conducting responsible export policies. Russia has been an MTCR member since 1995.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of May 2020 signed an order to accept the Foreign Ministry’s proposal, agreed with all federal bodies of executive power concerned and the corporation Roscosmos, on nominating Russia for MTCR chair in 2021-2022.