OREANDA-NEWS. March 25, 2010. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov received on March 24 the Director-General-Designate of the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ahmet Uzumcu.

The Minister stressed that the Russian Federation attaches great importance to the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (CWC) and gave an assurance that as before, Russia is committed to the cause of ridding the world of this type of weapons of mass destruction. He also pointed out that the OPCW is one of the most effective mechanisms in the disarmament sphere, which over the years of its functioning has earned a deserved international reputation.

A number of issues relating to the functioning of the OPCW were discussed, including progress in destroying the world’s stocks of chemical weapons, the achievement of the universal character of CWC, its nonproliferation component, and future prospects for the Organization.

The sides exchanged views on themes relating to disarmament and the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and on certain other topical foreign policy issues.