On 8 December 2006, the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND), establishing a training arrangement between the OPCW and the DND.
Canada was represented at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by H.E. James Wall, Permanent Representative of Canada to the OPCW, and other Canadian governmental delegates.
Under the arrangement, basic training will be provided to newly-recruited OPCW inspectors at the state-of-the-art training facilities at the Counter Terrorism Technology Centre (CTTC), which is a unit of Defence Research and Development Canada Suffield, at Canadian Forces Base Suffield in Alberta, Canada. The two-week programme will cover basic safety procedures and operations in individual protective equipment; detection, characterization and identification of chemical warfare agents; and procedures for decontamination and treatment of exposure to toxic chemicals. Inspectors will be trained to execute their duties in a safe and effective manner to the exacting standards expected of OPCW personnel.
During the meeting, Ambassador Wall emphasized Canada’s strong support for the excellent work done by the OPCW Inspectorate, and restated the commitment of the Government of Canada to ensuring that the Technical Secretariat has all the tools it requires to continue to execute its mandate to a high standard. Ambassador Wall further noted that as a token of Canada’s support for the OPCW, the Department of National Defence has agreed to fund more than two-thirds of the cost of providing the training program. Finally, he extended an invitation to Director-General Pfirter to visit the first class of trainee Inspectors at DRDC Suffield during the inaugural training course, which is scheduled to take place in the first quarter of 2007.
On behalf of the Organisation, Director-General Pfirter expressed his gratitude for Canada’s welcome, generous and practical support for one of the OPCW’s essential activities, the verification of the chemical weapons ban. He stated that Canada is a resolute and constructive supporter of the global ban on chemical weapons whose primary concern has been the OPCW’s continuing effectiveness in its mission to rid the world of these weapons.
PR95 / 2006