Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü met with Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar, the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs for Pakistan.
During his first official visit to Pakistan on 9 and 10 January 2012, Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü met with Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar, the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, and other senior officials.
The Director-General provided the Foreign Minister with an update on the status of implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), including the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles. He also briefed her on the main outcomes of the Conference of the States Parties in December and its decisions on the 2012 final deadline, increased annual number of industrial inspections, assistance and protection, and international cooperation.
Foreign Minister Rabbani Khar reaffirmed Pakistan’s continued commitment to support the Director General, OPCW’s activities, and implementation of the Convention, including collaboration with the industrial inspection regime. The Foreign Minister expressed Pakistan’s intention to host an OPCW regional center for assistance and protection that will focus on capacity building activities, and reiterated Pakistan’s offer to host international assistance-and-protection courses on an annual basis.
In his meetings with Acting Foreign Secretary H.E. Alamgir Babar and Additional Foreign Secretary H.E. Munawar Saeed Bhatti, the Director-General commended Pakistan for its firm commitment to the Convention and support for the work of the OPCW, underlining its constructive role during the recent Conference of the States Parties in achieving a positive result.
Director-General Üzümcü delivered the keynote address [PDF 56 KB] at a seminar on the CWC at the Institute for Strategic Studies in Islamabad (ISSI), in which he referred to the Convention as a successful example of multilateral cooperation for security. He stated that by the year 2016 only 1 percent of declared chemical weapons stockpiles will remain to be destroyed, an historic achievement that will fulfil a major part of the OPCW’s core responsibilities. The Director-General noted that the OPCW is now in the process of adjusting its priorities to meet ongoing challenges such as preventing the reemergence of chemical weapons, chemical safety and security, assistance and protection, universality, national implementation, developments in science and technology, and international cooperation on peaceful uses of chemistry.
The Director-General also met with the Chairman of the National Engineering and Scientific Commission, Mr. Muhammad Irfan Burney, and visited the Defence Science & Technology Organization (DESTO), where he was briefed by Maj. Gen. Tariq Jawaed and given a demonstration of protective equipment. Pakistan Television interviewed Director-General Üzümcü on issues related to the Chemical Weapons Convention and on the OPCW’s current and future activities.