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On 3 December in The Hague, an informal meeting on sea-dumped chemical weapons was organised at the initiative of Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Rogelio Pfirter, representatives from the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, nongovernmental organisations and industry, who are also taking part in the 13th meeting of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague, participated in the informal meeting.

During this event, Lithuania was represented by Lithuanian permanent representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Ambassador Vaidotas Verba, Economy Vice-minister Vytautas Naudužas, and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economy.

Ambassador V.Verba once again reminded participants of the event about the environmental threat of sea-dumped chemical weapons, their impact on health and security, and encouraged States Parties to the Convention to exchange their information on sea-dumped chemicals voluntarily, to share their scientific knowledge and pieces of concrete advice on how to neutralize or reduce this threat.

Results of an international seminar regarding sea-dumped chemical weapons, which was held on 30 September – 1 October in Vilnius this year, were presented during the event.

During a separate meeting with OPCW Director General R.Pfirter, V.Naudužas indicated the significance of the problem of chemical weapons dumped at the Baltic Sea for Lithuania. He also spoke about the goal of Lithuania to run for the chair of the meeting of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention next year.

Even if provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention are not applied to chemical weapons dumped at sea until 1985; however, every State Party has a right to draw attention to issues that are important to it.

Research done by a majority of countries demonstrates that there are sea-dumped chemical weapons in the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, etc. It is known that after the WWII, there were about 40.000 tones of chemical weapons dumped at the Baltic Sea, about 13.000 tones of which are poisonous warfare chemicals. 

For Lithuania, this Convention came into effect on 15 May 1998.