22 May 2017
Información para la Prensa N°: 200/17

Under the coordination of the Argentine Presidency Pro Tempore, the 29th Meeting of the Working Group on Firearms and Ammunition of Mercosur and Associate States was held on 17-18 May in Buenos Aires, in the presence of Delegations from Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the firearms and ammunition control authorities from the Member and Associate States of Mercosur, as well as by representatives of the respective Foreign Ministries. The meeting also included a civil society participation segment.

The Mercosur Working Group on Firearms and Ammunition is a dialogue forum at the sub-regional level that enables countries to address, from an integration perspective, issues such as the production and illegal trafficking of firearms, ammunition, explosives and other related materials.

Furthermore, the Group enables countries to follow up on the progress of important international instruments on firearms at the global and regional levels, in order to strengthen cooperation and information exchange among the members of the bloc so as to achieve better implementation of international recommendations and obligations.

During the working meetings, the countries exchanged information, experiences and examples of good practices with regard to the implementation of policies, strategies and cooperation programmes to strengthen the existing mechanisms for arms control, arms transfer and the fight against production and illegal trafficking of arms.