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G-8 Global Partnership Needs Spark, Report Says By Zerline Jennings WASHINGTON — Significant work is needed to fulfill the promise of the Group of Eight Global Partnership program to secure unconventional weapons and materials, according to a report released yesterday in advance of this weekend’s G-8 summit in St. Petersburg (see GSN, June 28, 2002). Leaders of the world industrial powers must “spark future action to reinvigorate the Global Partnership,” the $20 billion plan to secure WMD materials, largely in Russia, over the next 10 years, according to the report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The report appraises the program’s work since its 2002 inception at the G-8 summit in Kananaskis, Canada. It takes stock of progress made over the last four years and the challenges that remain. “Since 2002, the risk of weapons or materials of mass destruction falling into terrorist hands has only grown more acute,” states the report, commissioned by the Nuclear Threat Initiative. “Bombings since 9/11 in Tunisia, Bali and Kenya in 2002, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Turkey in 2003, Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 demonstrated that countries other than the United States were targets for al-Qaeda and its affiliates, and evidence has mounted that terrorists intend to attain the world’s most destructive weapons.” Members in the Global Partnership program — which now consists of 21 nations and the European Union — have designated more than $17 billion to various projects. However, only $3.5 billion has been spent to date. Even the full $20 billion is insufficient, the center said, noting that an earlier report had called for an increase in funding. “Our international consortium encouraged the G-8 to make their promise of $20 billion a ‘floor not a ceiling,’ anticipating that $20 billion would not be enough to complete the work that needed to be done. Yet in the fourth year of the Global Partnership, even the $20 billion goal has not been reached. … The current tally — just over $17 billion — is insufficient,” the report said. The partnership has made successful efforts to expand participation — thus donors — beyond the G-8 nations and European Union, the report states. Thirteen other nations have signed on: Finland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and South Korea. There have been significant developments among the four priorities designated in 2002 for the Global Partnership program: the destruction of chemical weapons, the dismantlement of decommissioned nuclear submarines, the disposition of fissile materials and the employment of former weapons scientists. The United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Canada and Norway have made significant progress in submarine dismantlement and chemical weapons destruction. More than $687 million has been provided to Russia for work in those two sectors, the report states. Other areas — securing nuclear materials, preventing smuggling of WMD materials and biological weapons site conversion — have received less attention, the report says. “Yet progress in those three areas would have the biggest impact in terms of reaching the fundamental Kananaskis goal of preventing terrorist access to WMD materials and know-how.” [EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nuclear Threat Initiative is the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by the National Journal Group.]
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