Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü (right) and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy, Ms Federica Mogherini.
Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü met this afternoon with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy, Ms Federica Mogherini, who is visiting The Hague to attend the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS).
The Director-General discussed with the Foreign Minister the ongoing OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria. Italy has offered use of the port of Gioia Tauro for trans-loading chemicals to be brought from Syria by cargo ship onto a U.S. maritime vessel, the Cape Ray, which will then leave the port and neutralise the chemicals in international waters.
The Director-General expressed appreciation to Italy for offering Gioia Tauro for this critical stage of the Syrian operations, and more generally for its longstanding support to the work of the OPCW. He updated the Foreign Minister on the schedule and arrangements for transporting the chemicals to Gioia Tauro and trans-loading them to the Cape Ray. He stressed that ongoing engagement by Italy with the maritime operation to remove and destroy Syrian chemicals will be vital for its success.
The Foreign Minister assured the Director-General of Italy’s continued support for the work of the OPCW and for the Syria mission.
The NSS is taking place today at the World Forum located next to the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat, which has been temporarily converted to house part of the international media corps covering the summit. The meeting with Ms Mogherini is one of a series the Director-General will have this week with world leaders attending the NSS. The Director-General will attend the summit as a VIP observer.
For more details on the OPCW’s activities, visit http://www.opcw.org