A video still of Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü providing a keynote address at the EuroScience Open Forum on 25 June 2014.
The OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, visited Copenhagen on 25 and 26 June where he had separate meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr Martin Lidegaard, and with the Minister of Defence, Mr Nicolai Wammen.
In his meetings, the Director-General updated the ministers on the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons programme. He expressed appreciation for Denmark’s important contributions to the complex maritime operation that has now removed Syria’s entire declared chemical arsenal for destruction outside the country. A Danish cargo ship, the Ark Futura, is currently transporting Priority 1 chemicals to the port of Gioia Tauro in Italy, where the bulk of them will be trans-loaded onto the U.S. Maritime Vessel Cape Ray.
The Director-General noted that Syria’s case has demonstrated the importance of effective multilateralism to achieve the goals of disarmament. He encouraged Denmark to lend its influence to those efforts with countries that remain outside the Chemical Weapons Convention. The ministers reaffirmed Denmark’s commitment to the CWC and its continuing support for the Syria mission and the overall work of the OPCW.
While in Copenhagen the Director-General also addressed two public forums. On Wednesday he delivered a keynote lecture on Science and Disarmament: Challenges and Opportunities to the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), a biennial pan-European meeting of scientists, policy-makers and entrepreneurs to stimulate innovation and research across diverse disciplines. On Thursday he attended a seminar at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) and spoke on “Progress towards a global zero on chemical weapons, with specific attention to Syria.”