From 19 to 23 March 2007, the Italian Ministry of Defense hosted a chemical weapons training course at its NBC Joint Logistic Technical Centre located in the Military Compound at S. Lucia in Civitavecchia. The course provided ten newly recruited inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) an opportunity to develop their on-site inspection skills. The OPCW trainees included specialists in chemical weapons munitions and health and safety, as well as an analytical chemist.
Over the past years, since the entry into force of the Convention on 29 April 1997, Italy has substantively contributed to the work of the Organisation by hosting training courses in Civitavecchia for newly recruited OPCW inspectors and has also provided advanced training modules in handling of non destruction equipments.
During the course, Ministry of Defense and OPCW instructors familiarized the trainee inspectors in the inspection procedures foreseen by the Chemical Weapons Convention. By conducting mock inspections, the trainees could each perform the key tasks that must be accomplished in the course of an on-site inspection.
On behalf of the OPCW, the OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, expressed his gratitude to the Italian Republic for its enduring and staunch support of the global chemical weapons ban, demonstrated through its generous support for OPCW inspector training. He emphasized that the OPCW is the global chemical weapons organisation whose effectiveness depends in large part upon OPCW Member States’ unwavering commitment to support the OPCW’s mission to establish and maintain a chemical weapons-free world.
PR22 / 2007