Distinguished State Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, HE. Dr. Tekeda Alemu; distinguished African Commissioner for Peace and Security Ambassador Said Djinnit, distinguished Representatives of the African Union Commission, Permanent Representatives to the AU, Ambassadors and delegates to the OPCW, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honour for me to be in Addis Ababa this morning. Today, we are opening a new phase in the joint work between the OPCW and the African Union. My presence here today is a further testimony of the high priority Member States of the OPCW attribute to this great continent and the personal commitment I have given to Africa since my arrival at the head of the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW This comes to me as a natural corollary of decades of multilateral diplomacy that taught me that no multilateral effort, whatever its merits and appeal, can be called successful if it does not enjoy the privilege of the support of Africa.
This support and the partnership we wish to develop with African Nations and its Union, will not be achieved overnight. It is a process, and as such it requires a persistent effort from all sides. Member States, big and small, our Technical Secretariat, other regional organisations, all united to make this continent safer and better prepared to put all its resources behind much needed socio economical priorities.
I would like to share with you some thoughts on this very promising process, one that will help us achieve our respective goals in the consolidation of peace and development, in Africa, and with Africa in the rest of the world.
But before that I wish to thank the Ethiopian Government, our host, for having extended to us their full support in the organisation of this meeting. I must also acknowledge the excellent cooperation we have received from the African Union Commission, despite a demanding schedule and other important priorities which undoubtedly reclaim the attention of its efficient secretariat. I would also like to pay special tribute to the colleagues and delegates that came from The Hague or from capitals and will help us with their contributions and inputs for what I am persuaded will be a successful meeting.
Africa and the OPCW: a Growing Partnership
This meeting follows a series of efforts, most recently the AU Summit in Mozambique in 2003, where the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW has been present to promote a greater awareness and participation of African countries in our work. Maputo was the time when the countries of the AU gathered to renew their commitment to the regional organisation and its institutional machinery for cooperation and development. A new Commission was elected, and the basis for a New Economic Partnership for African Development was consolidated. It was an important moment for Africa, and at the same time a timely occasion for us, at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to come to Africa and renew our intention to move forward in the consolidation of peace, security and development through the promotion of the global ban on chemical weapons. Since then we were able to establish a general framework for our future cooperation with the new Commission and move on the next stages of individual programmes and actions.
But we were not acting in a vacuum.
Africa had already given ample proof of its commitment to the total elimination of Chemical weapons through the adoption, at the 38th Session of the Organisation of the African Union, in Durban, South Africa, of a decision on the Implementation and Universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention. That important decision recalled the “steadfast position of Africa regarding weapons of mass destruction”, it encouraged a call to achieve universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention and also recommended effective implementation of the Convention “through sustained technical assistance from the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW”.
The singular achievement that was the Decision taken in Durban, had much to owe to previous efforts like the 2002 and 2003 Khartoum meetings, where important ideas found consensus through a series of recommendations such as the enactment of national implementing legislation for an effective implementation of the Convention, the declaration of Africa as a chemical weapons free zone and the need for closer interaction with regional institutions like the African Union itself, the SADC, COMESA, the TGAD; ECOWAS and the ECCAS.
The African Union Summit last year provided an excellent opportunity to build upon those seminal pronouncements and move from the more general, to the specific.
This meeting in Addis will help us advance from wide and far-.reaching~ political commitments, to the realm of their tangible manifestation. In other words, to define what we want to do together and how the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW could best assist the African nations in meeting their own political decision to rid this continent of this type of weapon of mass destruction.
The timing could not be better, as next month the Peace and Security Commission of the African Union will become operational, and will therefore provide a natural focal point for our joint work. On the side of the OPCW there are also very important achievements to build upon.
Last year, in The Hague, the OPCW hosted the First Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
A young Organisation like ours gathered for the first time to assess and review the operation of the Convention and set the operational priorities of the OPCW. I am happy to report that the results of the Review were extremely successful and as part of the outcomes of the Conference, two important decisions were taken by Member States, and both have a lot to do with Africa.
These were the adoptions of Two Action Plans: one on the Universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention; the other, on the National implementation of the Obligations stemming from its provisions.
Africa, Universality and the OPCW
We are making decisive progress on the issue of universality.
In less than one year we have moved from 17 to 12 States not Party in Africa. This figure will move down to 11 when Madagascar joins our ranks in the near future.
I cannot overstate the historical decision taken earlier this year by the Government of Libya, whom after declaring that for several years it had pursued programmes leading to the development of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons, joined the Convention in January this year and moved swiftly in the implementation of its obligations. Since the entry into force of the Convention for Libya on 5 February 2004, Libya has presented its initial declaration and destroyed, under stringent verification carried out by OPCW inspectors, more than 3500 aerial bombs. In the next few months Libya will present its detailed plans for destruction and start disposing of the remainder of its CW stockpile.
Libya’s decision has made Africa safer.
More importantly, it has confirmed that no one can pretend that security can be strengthened through the possession of a chemical arsenal.
In these troubled and difficult days, Libyan accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention confirms that security can be built on the basis of partial measures that create confidence and make arms races unnecessary. I fervently hope that the signs of progress we are seeing today in ridding North Africa of chemical weapons will be emulated soon in the rest of the Middle East. May Libya’s example inspire others to join the ranks of the overwhelming majority of peace loving nations that reject weapons of mass destruction.
The Universality Action Plan is gradually producing results. Apart from Libya, we are happy to welcome in our midst the African nations of Cape Verde, Chad and Rwanda. Allow me to congratulate the Government of Rwanda through its representative, Mr Alphonse Kayitayiré, who is among us today, for the prompt action his country has just taken in ratifying the Convention.
Allow me also to salute Chad, for its recent ratification of the Convention and welcome-Ambassador Kessely in our midst.
With our newcomers, the CWC has a total of 162 States parties, and it is the fastest growing disarmament treaty in the world.
As I said earlier, we have high hopes on Madagascar’s early accession which will bring us even closer to our goal of universal membership in Africa.
But more can be achieved in Africa. Important countries remain outside the CWC, and we need them. We understand the difficulties and the limitations, sometimes of a purely bureaucratic nature, that delay a positive decision by some States. But we also know that in the overwhelming majority of cases there is no philosophical or principled opposition to the idea and the purpose of the Chemical Weapons Convention, quite the contrary. This is why we encourage those African countries to approach us and let us co-operate with them to facilitate a prompt integration to the OPCW family. I also know that some of our Member States are willing to assist African Member States or Prospective Member States on a bilateral basis, as other regional organisations present today have also indicated, and I invite you to take advantage of this unique occasion to establish targeted partnerships aimed at facilitating accession to the CWC.
Africa and International Cooperation
African countries have joined the CWC because it is one of the core international conventions to guarantee and protect peace and stability. The international community as a whole wishes to achieve full membership in Africa for the OPCW. This interest is well founded and justified, as by joining in the Convention you will be joining others to meet the challenges of our times, including the looming menace of international terrorism.
But in so doing they have also open for themselves broad access to international cooperation programmes designed by the OPCW and which have been put at the disposal of Member States. Let me provide you with some examples of how the OPCW through its Member States and Technical Secretariat is helping our African members:
-The Associate Programme opens the doors of the most advanced chemical industries in the world to its participants, coming mainly from developing countries. This OPCW programme has supported 21 African experts so far and will increase the number of participants in the future.
-The Conference Support programme has provided financial support for participation in and organisation of conferences in Africa. More than 200 participants have benefited since the year 2000.
-The Internship Support Programme provides support to engineers and scientists from developing countries to gain experience in specialised laboratories in industrialised countries. So far, 12 African scientists have completed the programme and more are expected to benefit from it.
-The programme for Research Support assists small-scale research projects for scientific development and technical knowledge in the field of chemistry. To date, we have funded 38 such projects from different African institutions.
-In the Area of Assistance and protection Against Chemical Weapons we have trained over 180 African specialists and emergency responders.
I often repeat, and will do so again today, that the OPCW is not a development agency. Others do that, and such is certainly not our mandate, but it must be recalled that there are tangible benefits to be derived from membership in the Chemical Weapons Convention. There are also restrictions that can be avoided by joining, as limitations do apply to the transfers of certain chemicals to Non Member States, some of which are important in the textile industry, building and construction, oil extraction and many others.
It should also be borne in mind that the establishment of free trade agreements and even wider socio-economic co-operation schemes increasingly require membership in the main conventions and treaties banning weapons of mass destruction.
In this sense, joining the CWC can be seen as an act of political wisdom and economic pragmatism.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Chemical Weapons Convention has another unique feature.
It is the first disarmament treaty that aims at eliminating forever an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. It is based on equal treatment of all participating States. As such, as of March 2004, more than 8,500 metric tonnes of chemical agent, or 12% of the declared arsenals worldwide, have been destroyed in the United States, the Russian Federation, India, and Another State Party. Libya has commenced, and Albania, who declared a small arsenal last year, will start soon.
Aside from the purely disarmament related element, the CWC contributes significantly to international security through its activities of industry verification. This effort is also shared equally by all Member States in accordance with their declared industrial capabilities. Industry verification is related to the key objective of non-proliferation and as such will require a progressive increase in the number of inspections if we are to give the verification regime the central role as a credible deterrent it must have.
Another area where the OPCW can make an effective contribution is the fight against one of the newest and more destabilising factors of today’s world: international terrorism.
Africa has suffered under the violence of this deadly threat to peace and development, and took effective action against it through the Algiers Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism, adopted in July 1999 by the OAU. Although the CWC is not an anti-terrorist legal instrument, the full and comprehensive implementation of the provisions of the Convention can provide an efficient safety net against international terrorists and criminals seeking to spread terror and destruction through chemical agents.
Africa and National Implementation
The other important decision taken at our Review Conference was the elaboration of an Action Plan on National Implementation. This is, in more ways than one can imagine, as crucial to the success of the Chemical Weapons Convention as the goal of universal membership itself.
The Plan was elaborated and approved by our policy-making organs in record-breaking time and we have already been able to identify key areas that would benefit from an enhanced effort by the Technical Secretariat and Member States.
This is an essential part of our work, as the Chemical Weapons Convention requires a certain number of actions to be taken by adhering States after the entry into force of the convention for them. We know that the Continent needs assistance and capacity building to respond to the implementation requirements of international treaties like ours, and stand ready and willing to help.
Let me say it very clearly: I subscribe to the view that African States will properly implement treaties provided they are supported technically. The application of the Action Plan on Implementation will provide an adequate framework for our efforts in this regard. The adoption of comprehensive national implementing legislation is key to ensuring that the Convention achieves its goals, and in this sense let me reassure you that we will always be ready to provide guidance and support to facilitate the task of National Authorities and Parliaments, if so required. Some of the presentations during the seminar will elaborate in more detail on these aspects but at this point I wish to reiterate once again that we shall not leave Africa without the support it demands and deserves in pursuance of its political commitment to free the world of chemical weapons.
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished participants;
Much more could be said. In the course of our deliberations you will hear it in full detail from our experts in the Technical Secretariat and also from the national experiences of some of the Member States that joined us here and that will share with us their own experiences and the lessons they have learned.
Beyond all technical and practical considerations, I invite you to remember that we are in Addis Ababa today to promote the noble cause of peace and security through multilateral disarmament.
Progress has been made, but there is much more that can, and must, be achieved:
– Membership of those who are still outside, and we want inside.
– Full and comprehensive implementation by all.
– The benefits of International Cooperation and Assistance for all African Member States.
Let us work together on this agenda for peace, and make Africa a continent free from the threat of chemical weapons.
Thank you.