The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Mr Morris Rosenberg (left, sitting forward), met with the Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, and other senior staff members.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Mr Morris Rosenberg, visited the OPCW on 14 September 2012 and met with the Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, and other senior staff members. Mr. Rosenberg was accompanied by Canada’s Permanent Representative to the OPCW, Ambassador James Lambert, and Ms Sabine Nolke, Director General for the Security Threat Reduction Bureau at the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs.
In their meeting, the Director-General provided an update to the Deputy Foreign Minister on important ongoing issues related to the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, efforts to achieve universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention, and future priorities of the OPCW.
The Director General briefed Mr. Rosenberg especially on the preparations in the Technical Secretariat for resuming operations to complete the destruction of Libya’s chemical weapons (CW) stockpile. These operations originally began in October 2010 but were halted in February 2011 when the destruction unit malfunctioned.
In April of this year, Canada made a voluntary contribution to the OPCW of CAD 6 million (€ 4.53 million) for the Organisation to support the Libyan Government’s efforts in resuming and completing the destruction of its remaining chemical weapons. This mainly involves the purchase of equipment for the destruction of the remaining CW stocks and putting into place infrastructural and security measures related to the resumption of CW destruction activities in Libya. The Director General thanked Canada once again for their generous contribution.