The Director-General of OPCW will be in Sri Lanka to attend the Tenth Regional Meeting of National Authorities of States Parties in Asia, scheduled to take part from 26-28 June 2012 in Colombo.

Elaborating on the OPCW official's visit, the Minister said that effective control of trade chemicals is as important as regulation of lethal chemical weapons and his Ministry is designing a "Chemical Emergency First Responders' Plan" for Sri Lanka.

The meeting will serve as a forum in which States Parties in the region can present their needs for assistance in relation to Article VII of Chemical Weapons Convention and indicate what assistance they can offer to other States Parties in this regard.

Sri Lanka became a member state of the OPCW, the implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1997 and was one of the first countries in the world to ratify the convention.

The inter-governmental, Hague based OPCW represents 98% of the worldwide chemical industry with the mandate to ensure the implementation of its CWC provisions, international verification of compliance with it, and to provide a forum for consultation and cooperation among members.