The Director-General of the OPCW, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, and the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Prime-Minister’s Office, of the Kingdom of Denmark, H.E. Mr Michael Starbæk Christensen
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 23 June 2017 — The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, and the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Prime-Minister’s Office, of the Kingdom of Denmark, H.E. Mr Michael Starbæk Christensen, acknowledged the common goal of strengthening the international norm against chemical weapons at a meeting in The Hague yesterday.
Mr Christensen was accompanied by the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Denmark to the OPCW, H.E. Mr Ole Emil Moesby, and Counsellor to the Permanent Representation of Denmark to the OPCW, Mr Christian Nissen.
The Director-General briefed the Permanent Under-Secretary on issues related to the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), in particular the investigation of allegations of use of chemical weapons in Syria and OPCW’s role in preventing the use of chemical weapons by non-State actors.
Ambassador Üzümcü expressed his appreciation of Denmark’s strong commitment to the implementation of the CWC and its support for OPCW activities. He highlighted Denmark’s invaluable contribution to the recent OPCW-facilitated international effort to remove and verifiably destroy the remnants of Libya’s former chemical weapons programme.
Permanent Under-Secretary Starbæk Christensen underlined: “Denmark is proud to have supported the effort towards a world permanently free of chemical weapons and stands ready to assist the OPCW in all future endeavours.”
Background
The Kingdom of Denmark joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997 and has actively contributed to a variety of OPCW’s programmes and projects.
Denmark was strongly involved in the complex international effort to remove the Syrian Arab Republic’s declared chemical weapons, coordinated by the OPCW and the UN in 2013-2014. The country also led a multi-country maritime transportation operation during the 2016 removal and destruction of Libya’s former chemical weapons programme, under OPCW facilitation.
As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW oversees the global endeavour to permanently and verifiably eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention’s entry into force in 1997 – and with its 192 States Parties – it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.
To date, nearly 95 per cent of all chemical weapon stockpiles declared by possessor States have been destroyed under OPCW verification. For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Prize for Peace.