Vietnamese Ambassador to the Netherlands Pham Viet Anh, permanent representative of Viet Nam to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), is attending the fifth review conference on the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in The Hague from May 15 to 19.

The opening session of the fifth review conference on the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague, the Netherlands. (Photo: VNA)

Over the recent past, member countries of the convention have destroyed 99% of the declared chemical weapons and pledged to do the same for the remainder in the near future, heard the conference held every five years.

However, humans are now facing a number of new risks as some chemicals are being used for military and terrorist purposes, directly threatening the world security and human safety. Therefore, eliminating and preventing chemical weapons remains an important mission of the OPCW as a technical organisation for controlling and verifying the permanent elimination of chemical weapons and assisting member countries to fulfill their obligations towards the CWC.

Given this, the OPCW has built a technical centre named Centre ChemTech that features modern laboratories and inaugurated it on May 12. This centre, invested with over 34.6 million EUR (37.5 million USD), comes as a result of the OPCW’s enormous efforts and voluntary contributions from 57 member countries, the EU, and some organisations and individuals.

Addressing the inauguration, OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias described the centre as a success of multilateral diplomacy and a success symbol of the international community in keeping global peace and security.

ChemTech will not only serve as a laboratory of the OPCW but also help improve the organisation’s technical capability in the face of scientific and technological development as well as the world situation. It will gather and coordinate efforts by scientists, universities, research institutes, civil society and industrial organisations, and related international organisations while becoming a training centre for countries, especially developing ones, to build the capacity for CWC implementation.

On behalf of Viet Nam, Ambassador Anh left a message for future generations at Centre ChemTech, calling for stronger efforts for the sake of a world free of chemical weapons.

Source: VNA