Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Alfonso Dastis, meets Director-General of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

The OPCW is an international organisation set up in 1997 by the States Parties of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with the aim of ensuring effective compliance with the goals of this Convention. The mission of the OPCW is to eliminate all forms of chemical weapon around the world, and, in acknowledgement of its work, the organisation was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.

The minister underlined Spain's firm commitment to the OPCW and praised the work being carried out by the organisation, particularly for its actions in Syria, and shared the serious concerns of Director General Üzümcü about the allegations of the ongoing use of chemical weapons in this country, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and of Resolution 2118 (2013) of the United Nations Security Council.

During their talks, they addressed other issues of interest, such as the upcoming celebration of the 20th anniversary of the creation of the OPCW in April, the future priorities of this organisation, including its contribution to the fight against chemical terrorism, and the project to set up a "Network of OPCW laboratories in Ibero-America", in which the Spanish Laboratory for the Verification of Chemical Weapons (Spanish acronym: LAVEMA) must play an important role in boosting the capabilities for analysing toxic chemical substances in laboratories where Spanish is the first language.