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According to the decision of the Eastern European Group of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Lithuania will chair the Fourteenth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) from 30 November 2009 to 1 December 2010. Lithuania’s goals are: to strengthen the potential of the international community to react to the incidents related to chemical weapons, to prevent various threats, including the threat to the environment protection.

The Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, also called the Conference of the States Parties, is the main decision-making institution that joins delegates of 188 States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The OPCW budget is discussed and endorsed, and guidelines for the next year’s policy of the organisation are outlined, possibilities of the international cooperation envisaging terms for the destruction of chemical weapons are discussed, aspects of the Chemical Weapons Convention are adjusted, opinions on the issues of disarmament are exchanged during the Conference of the States Parties.

The Fourteenth Session will endorse the budget of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for 2010 and will make a decision regarding the new candidature of the OPCW Director General. The Conference will also discuss and endorse the plans and terms for the destruction of chemical weapons.

The Fourteenth Session will adopt the budget of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for 2010 and will make a decision regarding the new nomination of the OPCW Director General. The Conference will also discuss and adopt the plans and terms for the destruction of chemical weapons.

Lithuania, as the chair of the Conference of the States Parties, will play an important political and coordinating role until the next Conference of the States Parties in the end of 2010. Lithuania’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is Lithuania’s Ambassador to the Netherlands Vaidotas Verba.

The main goal of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits the development, production, acquisition, use, or transfer of chemical weapons. This Convention is one of the most exhaustive instruments of the international law. The Convention not only prohibits a certain category of weapons of mass destruction, but also establishes specific means to inspect how the States Parties fulfil their commitments.

Lithuania, as an active member of the European Union, which comprehensively raises the question of chemical weapons dumped at sea and unites international efforts to solve this problem. Lithuania has already organised a few international seminars and meetings on the threats of the sea-dumped chemical weapons and means to solve this problem. Lithuania has initiated the international effort to prepare and adopt the United Nations resolution on sea-dumped chemical weapons in 2010.

Lithuania, as an active member of the European Union, consistently raises the question of chemical weapons dumped at sea and unites international efforts to solve this problem. Lithuania has already organised some few international seminars and meetings on the threats of the sea-dumped chemical weapons and measures to solve this problem.