With the remarkable participation of Argentina, the commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the Mendoza Commitment —the joint statement of which was signed by Argentina, Brazil and Chile and later subscribed to by Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay— was held at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.
By virtue of the Commitment agreement, all seven countries undertook not to develop, produce, stockpile, transfer or use chemical or biological weapons, thus giving a decisive boost to the negotiations on the Chemical Weapons Convention adopted in 1993 and placing our region at the forefront in terms of the commitment that was subsequently assumed internationally through the establishment of the OPCW.
On this occasion, Argentina was represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Foradori, who renewed Argentina's commitment to the OPCW's goals in the presence of the OPCW Director-General, Ahmet Uzumcu, and representatives of the seven signatory countries, and reiterated the right to use all peaceful applications of chemistry and biology for economic and technological development and for the well-being of their peoples.
A plaque marking the anniversary was placed on one of the walls of the OPCW headquarters as a permanent reminder of the region's commitment to a world free from chemical weapons. Uzumcu highlighted the political will and courage displayed by the Latin American countries in 1991, which was an example for other countries around the world.
Foradori was one of the keynote speakers in the opening session of the International Day for the Foundation of OPCW, together with the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Mayor of The Hague, the Secretary General of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and one of the Awardees of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Argentine Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs offered a speech for the representatives of 190 countries, reaffirming Argentina’s permanent commitment to disarmament, non-proliferation, the fight against terrorism and to preventing the resurgence of weapons of mass destruction.
Press Release No. 123/16
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