On 12 April 2005, the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, addressed the Organization of American States (OAS). He also held bilateral discussions with senior officials in the United States Department of State to discuss issues related to the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Director-General Pfirter visited the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) and met the Chairperson of the OAS Committee on Hemispheric Security, H.E. Ambassador Carmen Marina Gutiérrez Salazar, Permanent Representative of Nicaragua to the OAS.
In his address to the meeting of the OAS Committee on Hemispheric Security, Director-General Pfirter gave an overview of the status of the implementation of the CWC, noting that the broad range of the Organisation’s activities in the region, such as implementation support, training, workshops, protection against use or threat of use of chemical weapons and industry verification, underscore the intensity of the OPCW’s commitment to the region, including close interaction with the OAS, as well as CARICOM, the OECS, and the Andean Community.
Director-General Pfirter expressed his confidence that the interaction between the OAS and the OPCW will further intensify in the future, as both Organisations jointly strive for their shared goal of a chemical-weapons-free region, as foreseen by the CWC and the OAS General Assembly’s Resolution 2000 (XXXIV-O/04), adopted on 8 June 2004, establishing the Americas as a biological- and chemical-weapons free zone.
Ambassador Pfirter also took this opportunity to hold meetings with CWC Signatory States and non-Signatory States from the Latin American and Caribbean region, which included the representatives of the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Honduras.
07/2005