Chemical Weapons Convention workshop in Qawra

A three-day workshop on the universality and implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), co-hosted by the government of Malta and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) opened yesterday at the Suncrest Hotel in Qawra.

The workshop is being attended by representatives from countries of the Mediterranean region, Africa, the European Union and Asia.

The participating countries are Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy, Japan, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, UK, US, and Malta.

These countries are all state parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Israel and Comoros are attending as signatory states which have not yet ratified the convention. Representatives from the European Union, the League of Arab States and the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs are also attending the workshop.

Gaetan Naudi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Investment Promotion, opened the workshop. In his welcoming address, he referred to the previous two OPCW regional seminars organised respectively in Gozo and in Malta in 1996 and 1999, and was pleased to see that for the third time Malta has been selected as a venue for such an event organised in collaboration with the OPCW Technical Secretariat.

Mr Naudi said that Malta firmly believed that universal adherence to the convention and its control system were of utmost importance for the full achievement of its objectives and purposes and for the global ban on chemical weapons to be fully effective and without loopholes.

Mr Naudi also referred to the EU action plan for the implementation of the basic principles for an EU strategy against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the measures being taken by the EU to promote and activate the challenge inspection instrument in the framework of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Malta fully supported.

The workshop was also addressed by Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, director general of the OPCW.

Delegates attending the workshop will discuss issues relating to the Chemical Weapons Convention, including its national implementation measures, international cooperation, assistance and protection, verification provisions and steps towards the universality of the convention in the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and neighbouring regions.