Riyadh: Under the patronage of Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eng. Waleed El-Khereiji, inaugurated today at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh, the event 'A World Free of Chemical Weapons' and its accompanying exhibition, organized by the National Authority for the Implementation of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event was attended by a number of Their Highnesses and Excellencies from various government bodies, as well as ambassadors of brotherly and friendly countries accredited to the Kingdom.
According to Saudi Press Agency, the Vice Minister delivered a speech in which he welcomed the participation of Their Highnesses and Excellencies in an event aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of chemical weapons and the importance of the international community's commitment to prohibiting them.
He noted that discussing the history of chemical weapons is to revisit one of the darkest chapters in human history when science was misused, shifting from a tool for building to an instrument of destruction and suffering. The Vice Minister added that such practices date back to ancient times through the use of smoke and simple poisons, and evolved over the centuries into toxic vapors and flammable substances, reaching their tragic peak in modern warfare with the use of lethal gases that revealed to the world the scale of the humanitarian and environmental catastrophe these weapons can cause.
The Vice Minister pointed out that these painful experiences motivated the international community to unify its efforts and establish legal frameworks to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies. Among these early efforts was the signing of the first international agreement limiting the use of chemical weapons in 1675, when France and Germany agreed to ban the use of poisoned bullets, later known as the Strasbourg Agreement. Two hundred years later, in 1874, the Brussels Convention on the Laws and Customs of War prohibited the use of poison or poisoned weapons. This was followed by numerous disarmament initiatives, including the First and Second Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907, respectively, and subsequently the 1925 Geneva Protocol banning asphyxiating and poisonous gases. These efforts culminated in the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, which entered into force in 1997 and established the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as the international body responsible for monitorin g compliance and working toward a world free of such weapons.
El-Khereiji affirmed that the Kingdom has given this issue great attention, believing that international peace and security can only be achieved through cooperation and shared responsibility. He noted that the Kingdom was among the first states to support efforts leading to the adoption of the Chemical Weapons Convention, and among the first to sign and ratify it. He added that the Kingdom promptly established a national authority to serve as the national point of contact with the OPCW and its member states, in addition to its active participation in the Organization's meetings and its continuous election to membership in the Executive Council since its establishment in 1997.
He explained that the national authority annually submits national declarations and data on chemical substances present in the Kingdom, works closely with OPCW inspection teams, and provides them with full support to carry out their missions with the highest levels of transparency.
El-Khereiji added that the Kingdom has played an active role in international conferences and forums, contributing to capacity, building efforts, and strengthening international cooperation, including the Kingdom's contribution of pound 50,000 to the establishment of the OPCW's new Centre for Chemistry and Technology, reflecting the Kingdom's consistent approach in supporting international efforts to achieve global peace and security.