Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

RUSSIA, GERMANY HAVE NO SECRETS FROM EACH OTHER

RIA Novosti

MAGDEBURG (Germany), March 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Germany have no secrets from each other in military-technological cooperation, German Defense Minister Peter Struck told reporters.

"The military-technological relations between Russia and Germany are very close, and we have no secrets from each other," the minister said when asked whether Germany feared to show Russia, as a non-NATO country, its latest military equipment.

"The very fact that we are on this shooting range, which used to be used by the Soviet Union and is now ours, shows that the times have changed, and this cooperation is mutually beneficial for us," said Peter Struck.

On Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov visited the training center of the Bundeswehr land forces, Letzlinger, 40 km northwest of Magdeburg (the federal land Saxonia-Anhalt).

The center was opened in March 2003 and is now considered the most up-to-date training center in Europe.

The center includes the Letzlinger Heide shooting range of 500 square meters.

The latter has been used for military exercises since the end of the 19th century. The Soviet Army acquired the shooting range after WWII. In the early 1990s, Bundeswehr servicemen resumed training at the shooting range.

The Russian defense minister observed the training from a special "commander's" hill where he had climbed together with his German counterpart Peter Struck. The weather in Magdeburg was fairly cold, and the Bundeswehr servicemen noted jokingly: "We have brought all the snow and frost from all over Germany here to make the Russian defense minister feel at home."