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Delegation of Japan

Statement by H.E. Mr. Minoru SHIBUYA,
Ambassador of Japan and Permanent Representative of Japan to the OPCW
at the Twelfth Session of the Conference of States Parties of the OPCW

The Hague, The Netherlands
5 November 2007

Mr. Chairman, Director-General, Your Excellencies, and distinguished delegates,

At the outset, allow me to congratulate Your Excellency Ambassador Abuelgasim Abdelwahid Shiekh Idris of the Republic of Sudan on your election as Chairman of the Conference of the States Parties. I am confident that the Conference will be most successful under your strong leadership and experienced diplomatic skills. I assure you of my delegation's full support and cooperation for your efforts to ensure the success of the Conference. I also wish to warmly welcome His Excellency Ambassador Werner Burkart of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Chair of the Committee of the Whole.

My sincere appreciation will equally be delivered to His Excellency Ambassador Romeo A. Arguelles of the Republic of the Philippines, Chairman of the Executive Council, for his leadership and efforts for the success of the Executive Council.

Mr. Chairman,

The Chemical Weapons Convention is the first disarmament and non-proliferation treaty in the history of mankind which aims at elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. Keenly aware of the uniqueness of the Convention and the expectations of the international community, Japan wishes to reiterate its commitment to the goal of the Convention and we promise that we will continue to make our efforts to make this organization a leading model for the disarmament and non-proliferation regimes of the world.

I would like to remind that the primary objective and the purpose of the Convention are to eliminate the chemical weapons and reduce the risk of proliferation. Recently there has been a series of discussions on strengthening OPCW's assistance activities, including economic development of the States Parties. In our view, assistance activities under this Convention could be meaningful only on the understanding that they contribute to strengthening the disarmament and non-proliferation regimes of the world. Bearing this conceptual understanding in mind, I would like to underline the following four points: namely, universality, national implementation, capacity building, organizational structure and budget.

Mr. Chairman,

My first point comes to universality. We should make our utmost efforts on universal renunciation of chemical weapons. Last year, we exceeded the target number of 180 States Parties set by the decision adopted by the Tenth Session of the Conference of States Parties. The more successful we are, the more difficult it becomes to make further progress on universality since the remaining States not Parties are more hardcore countries. Even under such difficult circumstances, it is a progress that Barbados joined CWC this year, which made the total number 182. We must keep this momentum.

Japan welcomes in this regard reports that the Republic of Congo has recently deposited its instrument of ratification with the United Nations, and also that Iraqi parliament has recently approved the bill for accession to CWC. In this connection, Japan, in an effort to assist Iraq to prepare for the accession, joined the workshop on CWC for Iraqi officials which took place in Amman, Jordan last week with financial contribution. Japan sincerely hopes to see Iraq to join CWC soon. At the same time, Japan urges all the remaining States not Party including Israel, Egypt, Syria, Myanmar, and DPRK to join the Convention immediately.

Mr. Chairman,

My second point is the full implementation of the Article VII obligations under the Convention. It is an important means of fighting proliferation and chemical terrorism. We have witnessed a fair improvement since the adoption of the Plan of Action. It is noteworthy that the implementation rate has now increased to 42% to report to this Session, improvement of 2% since 2006. Although it is an encouraging sign that States Parties are continuously engaged in fulfilling article VII obligations, it is a source of concern to my delegation that more than half of all States Parties has not yet been able to enact comprehensive legislation. This may leave a loophole in the efforts against proliferation of chemical weapons, including terrorism. In this connection, those States Parties which have not notified should notify the OPCW on the steps they have taken to enact legislation and adopt administrative measures to implement the Convention in accordance with the relevant Conference decisions.

For the purpose of non-proliferation and anti-terrorism, the verification activities under the Article VI need to be effectively implemented. Particularly, timely submission of initial and annual declaration is a basic responsibility for each State Party to conduct the effective verification activities. A draft decision on the issue of late submission is almost reached the consensus under the industry cluster. Japan is hoping that this issue will be solved at earliest possible time. Also, Japan would like to reiterate the urgency of each State Party's efforts on the national implementation, since fundamental solutions of this issue rest largely on each State Party's national measures to meet the requirements of the Convention.

Mr. Chairman,

My third point is very much related to the issues of universality and implementation. Promotion of universality and implementation needs to be supported by technical assistance. Without national capability to implement the obligations under the Convention, States not Party may feel unenthusiastic about joining the Convention and implement them. It is worth noting that a significant number of States Parties that have not enacted its national legislation have been seeking advice and assistance from the Secretariat.

In this connection, I would like to call upon the States Parties and the Secretariat to intensify their efforts in following up the Plan of Action regarding the Article VII obligations, and create conducive environment. On our part, Japan is ready to provide legal and technical assistance for national legislation in cooperation with the Secretariat as we did in Brunei, Cambodia in the past. We also had a joint seminar with Australia in Indonesia as well as in the Philippines this year. We will soon have seminars in Laos and Cambodia with the cooperation of the Technical Secretariat.

I would also like to reiterate Japan's firm commitment to the international cooperation programs which contribute to capacity building of States Parties in the course of implementing the Convention. Japan has been supporting the Associate Program through voluntary contributions for the last four years and received trainees. Japan is of the view that the Associate Program provides the participants with opportunities to learn the effective implementation of the industry-related provisions of the Convention as well as to learn the practices of modern chemical industry through on-site industrial training. We find the results satisfactory.

Mr. Chairman,

My fourth point comes to organizational structure of the Technical Secretariat and budget. In an effort to reinforce the non-proliferation regime of the Convention, it is important to have an efficient and effective organizational structure of the Technical Secretariat by constantly reviewing the human and financial resource allocation, using a scrap-and-build approach, along with the development of the CWC activities.

Indeed, within the given resources, efficient and effective resource allocations would make the program activities more viable and accountable. In this connection, Japan welcomes the efforts made by the Director-General on the draft program and budget with zero nominal growth for 2008, then for successive three years. We encourage the Secretariat to continue to explore cost-saving measures in carrying out its activities.

Mr. Chairman,

While attaching great importance to these four points which bear vital importance to the strengthening of the disarmament and non-proliferation aspect of the Convention, the Government of Japan continues to make utmost efforts to destroy Japanese abandoned chemical weapons in China as soon as possible. To date, a total of 42 thousand ACW have been recovered and stored in different locations in China, and preparations are under way to introduce mobile destruction facilities to realize early destruction of these recovered ACW. Japan currently envisages first such operation to start in 2010.

As for the ACW still buried in Haerba-ling, following the establishment of the Japan-China Joint Organization this April as the implementing body of the Haerba-ling project, we are preparing to start site preparations, i.e. tree-clearing, land formation, etc., awaiting the project approval. Japan will continue to make utmost efforts to carry out this unprecedented task in close cooperation with China.

Mr. Chairman,

We approach the Second Review Conference. We are pleased with the progress that has been made under the able guidance of Ambassador Lyn Parker of the United Kingdom. We will remain fully committed to ensuring a successful Review Conference.

To conclude my remarks, I would like to reiterate that Japan remains committed to the goal of the Convention: a world free from chemical weapons. Japan is determined to make every possible effort to promote universality and full implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.