Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü (left) and Mr Rui Machete, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs of Portugal
The OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, visited Portugal, 10-11 September 2015, at the invitation of the Government of Portugal. During his visit, the Director-General met with Mr Rui Machete, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs; Ambassador Francisco Duarte Lopes, Director-General of Foreign Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ambassador José Bouza Serrano, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the OPCW; Mr Rui Carmo, Head of the Directorate for Security and Defence Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr António Sabido Costa, Head of the National Authority for the Chemical Weapons Convention and other senior officials. Ambassador Üzümcü also met with the Executive Secretary and Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa.
In his meetings, Ambassador Üzümcü acknowledged Portugal’s contributions in the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, including its valuable contribution to OPCW training and assistance activities for Lusophone Member States. The Director-General updated Portugal officials on progress made in the Syria mission and discussed ways of further enhancing cooperation between the Organisation and Portugal.
The Director-General visited the Laboratory of Toxicology and Chemical Defence of the Army. Ambassador Üzümcü also delivered a lecture [PDF, 253K] at the Institute for Political Studies of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon.