OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü
The OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, visited Montevideo on 9 and 10 April 2014 where he had meetings with the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Mr Ing. Ernesto Kreimerman, and the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr Luis Porto. The Director-General gave a speech [PDF – 37 KB] at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was attended by representatives from the ministry and members of the diplomatic corps.
In his meetings with the ministers, the Director-General provided an overview on the global implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), including the mission to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons programme, and on the OPCW’s ongoing efforts to achieve universality of the CWC. He commended Uruguay for its commitment to the Convention and support for the work of the OPCW, and was assured that Uruguay’s commitment and support would continue.
The Director-General also met with the Parliamentary Committee of International Affairs. Members of Parliament informed the Director General that the Uruguayan Senate earlier this week had passed additional legislation to improve national implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
While in Montevideo the Director-General also met with the Dean of the Faculty of Chemical Science, Dr. Eduardo Manta and with students and technical experts who have participated in OPCW courses, or received project or conference funding. Feedback from these beneficiaries of OPCW capacity development initiatives provided clear evidence that the support provided by the Organisation had led to increased awareness of the work of the Organisation, and contributed to international cooperation in the peaceful uses of chemistry through seed funding for regional meetings, longer-term research initiatives.
In addition, the Director-General visited the Pando Scientific and Technologic Park, outside of Montevideo. The cluster represents a public-private partnership to enable cooperative projects in chemistry and related life and engineering sciences.