Pakistan re-elected to executive council of chemical weapons watchdog
Pakistan has been re-elected to the executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Foreign Office said in a statement on Saturday.
Pakistan will now be a member of the executive council for a further two years from 2022 to 2024.
Elections for the council were held during the recently concluded 26th session of the Conference of States Parties in the Netherlands from November 29 to December 2.
The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) — the world's first multilateral disarmament agreement with 193 states as parties — is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction, according to the FO statement.
The executive council is the principal policy-making organ of the OPCW, which is responsible for supervising the effective implementation of and compliance with the CWC. It also supports the scientific and economic development of its member states in the peaceful uses of chemistry, it added.
Pakistan has been a member of the executive council since 1997.
"Pakistan has been contributing constructively towards the fulfillment of the objectives of the CWC and regularly hosts OPCW routine inspections at its relevant facilities," the Foreign Office said.
It termed Pakistan's re-election to the council a testament to the country's positive role in the watchdog, adding that it reaffirmed the confidence of other member states in Pakistan's ability to provide "effective leadership and impetus to the work of the OPCW".