The OPCW hosted a 3-day meeting from 29 to 31 March 2010 to take forward planning of the third exercise on delivery of assistance, or ASSISTEX 3, to be hosted by the Government of Tunisia this October. The meeting brought together Tunisian officials, relevant Technical Secretariat staff and representatives of other participating countries and organisations.
In his opening remarks to the meeting the OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, underlined his thanks to the Tunisian authorities for hosting this event. He noted that the Technical Secretariat had thus far received nominations for participation from 11 States Parties* and that the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) had also confirmed its intention to participate. He reminded the meeting that the Second Review Conference had stressed the importance of a high level of readiness of the Secretariat and States Parties for providing timely and needed assistance and conducting investigations of alleged use of chemical weapons.
In the meeting, participants reviewed in detail the planned programme, modalities, activities and Host Nation support for ASSISTEX 3.
In the context of Article X activities, the Director-General separately noted that as of today, 74 States Parties provided assistance through the organisation: 43 have contributed to the Voluntary Fund for Assistance totaling some €1.4 million; one State Party has concluded a bilateral agreement on provision of assistance; and 44 States Parties have declared unilateral offers of assistance. He said the growing number of requests for protective capacity building programmes from Member States indicates a steadily growing interest in the role of the OPCW as a credible provider of highly specialised skills in this field.
* France, Germany, Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Libya, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Sweden, United Kingdom
OPCW NEWS 05/2010