OPCW Director-General addresses ICCA Board meeting

Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) addressed the ICCA Board meeting in Vienna in October.

Delivering a statement entitled ‘Twenty Years of the OPCW: its Achievements, Future Outlook and Cooperation with Industry” Ambassador Üzümcü described the partnership with the chemical industry as a pillar of OPCW’s success and emphasized that building bridges with organizations such as ICCA was vital to their future endeavors.

At a time when OPCW activities are shifting from verifying the destruction of chemical weapons to preventing their re-emergence, Ambassador Üzümcü encouraged industry representatives to consider new perspectives, saying, “Our partnership with the chemical industry has been a pillar of that success and building bridges with institutions such as the ICCA is as vital to our future endeavors as it ever has been.  Amidst the shift in focus away from stockpiles to preventing their re-emergence, the OPCW’s cooperation with the industry will assume greater significance, especially in chemical safety and security.”

ICCA Board members expressed their willingness to continue to work together for the use of chemistry to the benefit of humankind.