PH Elected as New Regional Group Coordinator for Asia in the OPCW

Incoming Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Asian Group Coordinator and Ambassador to the Netherlands Jaime Victor B. Ledda (left), shaking the hands of outgoing Coordinator and Ambassador of Iran Alireza Kazemi Abadi (middle), during the turnover of Coordinatorship on 25 June 2019. (The Hague PE photo)

THE HAGUE 02 July 2019 — The Philippines, with its Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the Netherlands Jaime Victor B. Ledda, was unanimously elected as the new Asian Group Coordinator in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The position was formally turned over by outgoing Coordinator, the Permanent Representative of Iran Alireza Kazemi Abadi, to Ambassador Ledda during the Asian Group Meeting held on 25 June 2019.

This is the first time that the Philippines has assumed the position of Regional Coordinator for Asia in the OPCW, since its establishment on 29 April 1997 following the Chemical Weapons Convention’s (CWC) opening for signature in Paris on 13 January 1993. The Asia Group is composed of 56 Asian States Parties to the CWC.

The Philippines deposited its instrument of ratification to the CWC on 11 December 1996 and was the second country from Asia to become a State Party to the Convention. END

Ambassador Ledda presides the first meeting of the Asian Group under the Philippines’ Coordinatorship. (The Hague PE photo)

With OPCW Director-General Mr Fernando Arias (third from left) are (from left) Ambassador Ngo Thi Hoa of Viet Nam, Ambassador to the Netherlands Jaime Victor B. Ledda, Sri Lankan Ambassador Adam M. J. Sadiq, Malaysian Ambassador Ahmad Nazri Yusof, and Mr. Reza Pourmand Tehrani and Mr. Mohsen Araghi of Iran. (The Hague PE photo)

For more information, visit https://www.thehaguepe.dfa.gov.ph or  https://www.facebook.com/PHinTheNetherlands/.