28 April 2017
Información para la Prensa N°: 152/17

On April 28 in the afternoon, the commemorative ceremony of the 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the founding of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was held at the Palacio San Martín.

The event was chaired by the Deputy Foreign Minister, Ambassador Pedro Villagra Delgado, and representing the OPCW was Mr. Sergey Zinoviev, an official of the International Cooperation Division of the organization.

During the ceremony, the speakers underscored that throughout the 20 years in which it has been in force, the Chemical Weapons Convention has turned into one of the most successful global disarmament instruments in history: 192 countries are State Parties to this treaty, representing 98% of the global population. It is expected that by 2023 all the declared chemical weapons arsenals will have been destroyed.

Ambassador Villagra Delgado underscored that the Argentine Republic is against any use of chemical weapons, in any situation, under any circumstances and by any actor and expressed a firm belief that all those responsible for the use of such weapons must be tried. Furthermore, he underscored that the OPCW’s work has been remarkably successful, which earned the organization the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.

The Argentine Republic, one of the first signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention, acceded to the treaty in 1997. The country has since then complied with the obligations imposed by the Convention and promoted international cooperation in peaceful uses of chemistry.

The event at the Palacio San Martín was held exactly one month after President Mauricio Macri’s visit to the OPCW, which was the first visit of an Argentine president to the organization’s headquarters in The Hague and in which he reaffirmed Argentina’s commitment to non-proliferation and the total abolition of weapons of mass destruction.