Press Releases

Exchange of Notes Verbal with the United Nations on a Contribution toward the Destruction of Chemical Weapons in Syria

March 11, 2014

1. An exchange of notes verbal between the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations (UN) and the Office of the Secretary-General of the UN concerning a contribution to the destruction of chemical weapons of the Syrian Arab Republic took place in New York on March 11 (March 10 local time).

2. In December last year a total of approximately 1.5 billion yen was allocated to the draft supplementary budget of the fiscal year 2013 with the aim of financially contributing to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN. Following the recent enactment of this supplementary budget, the Government contributes 1 million US dollars to the UN. On February 25 an exchange of letters took place regarding a contribution of approximately 13 million euros to the OPCW.

3. In line with the decisions by the OPCW and the UN Security Council Resolution 2118, an international effort is currently underway toward the destruction of chemical weapons of the Syrian Arab Republic. The Government of Japan would like to make as much cooperation and contribution as possible to the international community’s efforts to destruct chemical weapons of the Syrian Arab Republic. This cooperation has significance in stability in the Middle East region, contribution to efforts by the international community to destruct chemical weapons, a category of weapons of mass destruction, and issuing a strong message of the international community that it never tolerates the possession or use of chemical weapons.


(* The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)
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