News

On 16 October in New York, Lithuania held a seminar on the issues of chemical weapons dumped at sea. It took place between the meetings of the United Nations First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) of the General Assembly.

During the meeting, permanent representative of Lithuania to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ambassador Vaidotas Verba drew attention of the participants of the meeting to the threat of sea-dumped chemical weapons to ecology, health, security, economy and that of chemical weapons falling into the hands of terrorists.  

The diplomat encouraged countries to strengthen international and regional cooperation on this issue and to exchange information, experience and technologies on a voluntary basis.

Chief of Cabinet of the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Richard Ekwall, Director of the nongovernmental organisation Global Green USA Paul Walker and representatives from the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs took part in the meeting, which was organised at Lithuania’s initiative.

Lithuania is preparing to present a resolution on sea-dumped chemical weapons at the UN First Committee of the General Assembly in 2010.

Last year, Lithuania took the initiative to include an issue of sea-dumped chemical weapons on UN agenda. Aiming at cooperation of countries on this issue, Lithuania organised an international conference last October in Vilnius. Representatives of governments of various countries that are currently interested in this issue, the most prominent experts on chemical weapons, academicians, ecologists and representatives from other fields took part in the conference.