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The opening session of the fifth review conference on the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague, the Netherlands

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 organization 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 center named Center ChemTech that features modern laboratories and inaugurated it on May 12. This center, 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 E.U., and some organizations and individuals.

Addressing the inauguration, OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias described the center 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 organization’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 organizations, and related international organizations while becoming a training center for countries, especially developing ones, to build the capacity for CWC implementation.

On behalf of Vietnam, Ambassador Anh called for stronger efforts for the sake of a world free of chemical weapons.

Source: VNA