On 22 April 2005, the Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the General Secretariat of the Andean Community (CAN) concluded a Memorandum of Agreement in Cartagena, Colombia. The Agreement facilitates cooperation between the Community and the OPCW in their joint effort to promote peace and security in the region, as well as to achieve the aims of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Both the OPCW and the Andean Community will now be better able to provide the support the Member States of the Andean Community may require to fully implement the CWC.
The Andean Community comprises the five nations Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The key objectives of the Andean Community are to promote member states’ development, to boost their growth through integration and economic and social cooperation, to enhance political participation in the regional integration process of Latin America, and to strive for steady improvement in the standard of living of their inhabitants. All of the Member States of the Andean Community are also OPCW Member States and States Parties to the CWC.
Through this additional instrument both Secretariats will thus be able to further enhance the participation of the five nations of the CAN in OPCW activities.
13/2005