US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov signed the United States-Russia Arrangement on Cooperation in Enhancing Control of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) in Bratislava on February 24.
This agreement provides a bilateral framework for cooperation in the control of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that can threaten global aviation if obtained by criminals, terrorists and other non-state actors.
One goal of this arrangement is to facilitate the destruction of MANPADS that are obsolete or otherwise in excess of legitimate defence requirements.
This arrangement also will allow the two countries to share information about MANPADS sales and transfers to third countries.
Compiled by Spectator staff from an official press release of US Department of State24. Feb 2005 at 16:45
