A Technical Secretariat team conducted a successful initial visit to Tunisia from 26 to 27 February for the preparation of the Assistex III exercise on delivery of assistance, which is scheduled to be held in Tunisia in 2010.
Following are the paragraphs related to assistance and protection contained in the opening statement by the OPCW Director-General to the Executive Council at its 56th session.
In the area of assistance and protection against chemical weapons, a Technical Secretariat team conducted a successful initial visit to Tunisia from 26 to 27 February for the preparation of the Assistex III exercise on delivery of assistance, which is scheduled to be held in Tunisia in 2010. The invitation for this important event will be issued in the near future. In this connection, I wish of course to express again our gratitude to the Government of Tunisia for their willingness to host this exercise and for the support extended to the Technical Secretariat.
The Secretariat and the Republic of Singapore jointly organised the first regional training course on emergency response to chemical incidents for the States Parties from Asia, which was held in Singapore from 2 to 6 March 2009.
Moreover, at the request of the National Authority of Viet Nam, the Secretariat dispatched a team for an initial technical assessment visit to start a project for national capacity building against chemical weapons. The visit was conducted in Hanoi, Viet Nam, from 3 to 5 March.
The first Swiss advanced training course with a new training curriculum, related to the offer made by Switzerland under Article X, was conducted at the NBC Training Centre in Spiez, Switzerland, from 16 to 20 March.
Also during the reporting period, in order to assess offers of assistance from States Parties under paragraph 7 of Article X of the Convention, the Secretariat carried out technical visits to France and Austria on 23 and 24 March, and on 1 and 2 April, respectively.
The Technical Secretariat, in cooperation with the National Authority of Peru, also conducted a regional workshop on assistance and protection against chemical weapons for the States Parties in the Latin American and Caribbean region, which was held in Lima, Peru, last week. I wish to express once again my warm thanks to all these institutions again, and to all the countries that have provided support to the assistance and protection activities.