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Vietnam's permanent representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Pham Viet Anh had affirmed the country's commitment to fully and responsibly implement the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) while attending the Fifth Review Conference to examine the CWC operation held in The Hague from May 15 to 19.
Anh, who is Vietnamese Ambassador to the Netherlands, lauded significant achievements obtained by member states in the destruction of declared chemical weapons and the OPCW's indispensable role as an important tool to maintain security and peace for a world without chemical weapons in particular and weapons of mass destruction in general.
The ambassador reaffirmed Vietnam's consistent stance on backing non-proliferation of and complete and verifiable disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons. Vietnam condemns any use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere, under any circumstances and for any motive, he stated.
On the occasion, the Vietnamese delegation proposed that all activities of the OPCW should strictly comply with the functions and tasks specified in the CWC; their publicity, transparency, objectivity should be enhanced and politicisation prevented; and cooperation and dialogue should be promoted to resolve differences.
Vietnam urged the OPCW to promote its functions and capabilities to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of countries in developing the chemical industry safely and securely, for peaceful purposes; facilitate the utilisation of human resources from developing countries, with a focus on geographical balance; and support the idea of building and scaling up regional centres to pool resources serving the implementation of the convention, including carrying out an initiative to establish an ASEAN regional centre on CWC implementation capacity building.
Vietnam also suggested promoting the role of the Centre for Chemistry and Technology (ChemTech) in supporting equipment and training staff for member countries; and opening up more employment opportunities at ChemTech for officials from member countries, especially developing ones.
The CWC was signed in 1993 and came into force in 1997. Vietnam inked the convention from the first day – January 14, 1993. So far, the OPCW has been operating for 26 years and member countries have destroyed more than 99% of the declared chemical weapons under its control. The US has committed to destroy the remaining weapons before September 30 of this year.
