Cuba’s First Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Environment Visits OPCW
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 17 October 2017 — The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, met the First Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of the Republic of Cuba, H.E Dr Fernando González Bermúdez, who visited the OPCW Headquarters in The Hague yesterday.
The Director-General and the First Deputy Minister discussed implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and a number of initiatives undertaken by the OPCW in the field of national implementation, international cooperation and assistance, and the promotion of peaceful uses of chemistry. The Director-General provided an overview of the global implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the role of science and technology in these efforts. He commended Cuba for its commitment to the Convention and for its support to the work of the OPCW, including through a scientist at the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).
First Deputy Minister González expressed Cuba’s full support for the OPCW and reiterated his country’s firm commitment to ensuring the success of the Convention into the future in particular in the implementation of article XI, International Cooperation and Assistance.
Background
Cuba ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1997. Cuba has contributed its expertise to the implementation of the CWC in Latin America and the Caribbean in the areas of verification, declarations, assistance and protection and others.
As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW oversees the global endeavour to permanently eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention’s entry into force in 1997 – with its 192 States Parties – it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.
Over 96 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.