Amsterdam, the Netherlands Oct 2019 – Jan 2020

At the request of the Saudi Arabian National Authority for the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions, high-level staff from its Board received a one-week training course in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, during which they were introduced to the role of the National Authority of the Chemical Weapons Convention, briefed on the Conference on Disarmament, and the United Nations Disarmament Commission, the two main bodies responsible for negotiating arms control instruments, and on the Biological Weapons Convention. Other briefings allowed them to understand the complexity and rigor of the declarations requested by the Convention, its implementation modalities, its thorough inspection regime, and the usefulness of its Annex on Chemicals. Each training was held over a one-week period and ran 5 consecutive times over a 4 month period.

The theoretical training was completed by a half-day each week at the Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), during which they received an overview of its activities.

The training course was the first of its kind addressing the role of the National Authority of the OPCW. Mr Mohammed Abdulaziz S. Albarakah, Minister Plenipotentiary, expressed full satisfaction with the courses.