The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Fernando Arias visited the People's Republic of China from 17 to 21 September. Director-General Arias had meetings with high-level Chinese officials, including H.E. Mr. Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT); Major General Yao Qin, Deputy Chief of Office for International Military Cooperation, Central Military Commission and Ministry of National Defense, and Mr. Sun Xiaobo, Director General of the Department of Arms Control, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), and Mr Chen Jie, Vice Mayor of Shanghai.
Director-General Arias discussed with the senior Chinese officials the impact that the challenging international security environment may have on the global disarmament and non-proliferation architecture and the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Both sides underlined the importance of multilateralism to ensure global peace and security and agreed to make all efforts to preserve the OPCW as an effective multilateral platform for dialogue and cooperation on chemical weapons disarmament and non-proliferation.
During the meeting, H.E. Mr Jin Zhuanglong, the Minister of Industry and Information Technology highly commended the achievements of the OPCW in performing its duties, saying "The OPCW has played a significant role in global security governance in the past 27 years since the CWC entered into force and has won wide recognition from the international community. Now under your able leadership, the organisation is steadily adapting itself to the future."
The Chinese Minister assured the Director-General of the continued commitment and support of China to the work of the Organisation. "China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the OPCW, actively promote the reform of the industrial verification mechanism of the Convention, and adopt an innovative way which focus on both the security needs in relation to preventing chemical weapons re-emergence and the economic and industrial development needs, while also takes into consideration of geographic balance, to deal with the new problems and challenges in the implementation of the CWC."
Meeting between the delegations of the OPCW and the Department of Arms Control of the Foreign Ministry of China led by Ambassador Fernando Arias, Director-General of the OPCW, and Mr Sun Xiaobo, Director-General of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese MFA.
Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China
Director-General Arias expressed gratitude for China's continuous support to the OPCW and appreciation for China's unwavering efforts in the implementation of the CWC. He briefed Minister Jin on the priorities on OPCW's agenda in implementing the Convention. He pointed out that, "to prevent the re-emergence of chemical weapons, OPCW needs to continue to uphold the norm against chemical weapons, and to strengthen the industry verification regime. Closing gaps in national implementation and promoting the universal adherence to the CWC are important to ensure the Organisation continues to implement its mandates in the post-destruction era."
Director-General Arias said, "In the context of the fast-growing chemical industry, implementation of industry inspections is an area that the OPCW pays high attention to. The Organisation is augmenting its efforts to optimise the industry inspections to strengthen the effectiveness of the industry verification regime. China will receive 500th industry inspection by the end of November 2024, which will be an important milestone in the cooperation between OPCW and China."
Director-General Arias further highlighted the importance of harnessing the opportunities and addressing the risks posed by the rapid developments in science and technology. "Astounding progress in science and technology, especially the rapid advances of artificial intelligence, will have profound impacts on the future implementation of CWC. We have been taking a series of steps to keep abreast of the developments in AI. These are to ensure that the emerging technology is applied for the better implementation of the CWC." said Director-General Arias.
Ambassador Fernando Arias, Director-General of the OPCW, and Mr Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT).
Photo: Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
He further stated that "Prevention of re-emergence will remain as an open agenda forever. Chemical weapons have been used by states and non-state actors alike. Under the current circumstances, mitigating the threat of the use of toxic chemicals as weapons by non-state actors is more important than ever. Strengthening verification regime, along with robust international cooperation assistance, will play a critical role in addressing the threat."
In meetings between Director-General Arias and Major General Yao Qin as well as Director General Sun Xiaobo, the topics included the destruction of chemical weapons abandoned (ACWs) by Japan on the territory of China. The Director-General said "the destruction of old chemical weapons (OCWs) and ACWs is an indispensable component for a world free of chemical weapons. I commended the cooperation between China and Japan for their strong will and commitment in continuously advancing the work on ACWs. The Technical Secretariat continues to support China and Japan in implementing the Convention's provisions related to ACWs."
Director-General Arias also visited Shanghai and met with Mr. Chen Jie, Vice Mayor of Shanghai. The Director-General visited the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park and the Artificial Intelligence Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
During his visit, the Director-General also joined the OPCW Executive Council's visit to China (Beijing, Mudanjiang and Haerbaling) to assess the progress in the destruction of chemical weapons abandoned by Japan on the territory of China.
Ambassador Fernando Arias, OPCW Director-General, and delegation receive a briefing at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park.
Background
China has been an active member of OPCW since the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in 1997. China is a member of the OPCW Executive Council, the governing body of the Organisation, which is responsible for promoting the effective implementation of and compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention as well as supervising the activities of the Organisation's Technical Secretariat.
As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW, with its 193 Member States, oversees the global endeavour to permanently eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention's entry into force in 1997, it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.
In 2023, the OPCW verified that all chemical weapons stockpiles declared by the 193 States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention since 1997 - totalling 72,304 metric tonnes of chemical agents - have been irreversibly destroyed under the OPCW's strict verification regime.
For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
