The United States and the Ukraine signed an accord on Wednesday to increase cooperation in the aerospace industry aimed in part at preventing Ukrainian scientists from using their expertise to produce weapons of mass destruction.
The accord was signed by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her Ukrainian counterpart Boris Tarasyuk on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting here.
"Ukraine possesses significant aerospace technology and expertise that could otherwise be used to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems," a statement on the agreement stated.
The accord "recognizes the importance of keeping this expertise in a field that complements our mutual goals of pursuing high-technology and nonproliferation cooperation," it continued.
The memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreement estimates that three million dollars will be dedicated to joint research efforts in the US and Ukrainian aerospace industries, particularly in space life sciences and medicine related to the international space station.
The MOU also "expresses our mutual determination to continue to explore future cooperation in the area of trade in commercial space launch services."
The agreement marks the "beginning of discussions on elimination of Ukraine's SS-18 and SS-24 production capabilities under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program" agreed to by the United States and the former Soviet republic.
US Secretary of Defense William Cohen announced last July during a trip to Kiev that this program, which had concluded in 1993, would be extended until 2006.
The bilateral disarmament program was established by the United States to help former Soviet states dismantle their weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear ones, and to fight the risks of weapons proliferation.
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