The Open-Ended Working Group on Terrorism has continued to operate under the very able coordination and facilitation of France. On 25 March 2009, the Working Group facilitated presentations from two national counter-terrorism experts from Saudi Arabia.
Following are the relevant paragraphs from the opening statement by the OPCW Director-General to the Executive Council at its 56th session.
The OPCW’s contribution to global anti-terrorism efforts and effective multilateralism continues apace. The Secretariat, as I mentioned before, will continue to support the United Nations in this area. At the same time, the Open-Ended Working Group on Terrorism has continued to operate under the very able coordination and facilitation of France. On 25 March 2009, the Working Group facilitated presentations from two national counter-terrorism experts from Saudi Arabia.
The Secretariat also continues to support the OPCW’s involvement in global efforts aimed at ensuring non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In particular, the Technical Secretariat hosted a seminar on “Multilateral approaches to non-proliferation – chemical dimension”, which was co-organised with the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute. This seminar represented a visible example of effective cooperation among international organisations to promote non-proliferation standards and arrangements in practice at the regional and national levels. We intend to continue supporting this very important institute, based in Turin.
Together with the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael and other Dutch institutions and international partners, the Technical Secretariat has been working on a series of events including workshops, lectures, and training programmes. A first seminar was organised at the Clingendael Institute on 26 and 27 March 2009 on “Effective implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention as a contribution towards the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004)”.