Working together for a world free of chemical weapons
On Wednesday 23 May, we were hugely honoured to host His Excellency Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Our president, Professor Sir John Holman, welcomed distinguished guests to our London home at Burlington House, including representatives of the Turkish Embassy in London, universities and industry, and UK government departments, including the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
Sir John said: "I am proud to say that in 2016 the Royal Society of Chemistry signed the Seville declaration on the use of chlorine in warfare, alongside colleagues from EuCheMS, raising the voices of hundreds of thousands of chemists from around Europe.
"This could not be a more timely moment to consider the issues around chemical weapons, given recent occurrences in this country and elsewhere.
"And it could not be more appropriate to have this discussion at the Royal Society of Chemistry where, like our colleagues in chemical societies across the world, we bend our minds to the use of chemistry to make the world a better place, not a worse one."
Enduring friendships
Cem Işık, Deputy Head of Mission at the Turkish Embassy in London, underlined his country’s support for the mission of the OPCW and spoke warmly about his early career, working with Director-General Üzümcü while he was Turkey’s Ambassador to Israel, and the UN, in Geneva.
Professor Andy Bell introduced the audience to the admirable career of Ambassador Üzümcü, paying tribute to the work of the OPCW in his tenure, efforts which gained fitting recognition with a Nobel Peace Prize in 2013. As a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s governing Council and in his role working at Dstl, Andy previously welcomed the Director-General on a visit to the UK in 2011.
The Director-General began his speech by looking back to that visit, which included a talk to guests at the Royal Society of Chemistry, as part of the 2011 International Year of Chemistry celebrations.
Great progress
The Director-General explained that after 21 years of the OPCW’s sustained efforts towards chemical disarmament, the world is closing in on the complete destruction of declared stockpiles.
He said: "In 2011, I informed the society that 63% of those stockpiles had been destroyed. That figure today has risen to over 96%, and we will attain 100% when the United States concludes its chemical demilitarisation process by its planned deadline of 2023.
"Without the input of chemistry, however, this feat would have been impossible. The Convention obliges its state parties to not only destroy their stockpiles, but to also do it in a safe and environmentally-responsible manner. It took chemists and chemical engineers to devise the suitable hydrolysis methods to safely dispose of vast stocks of toxic agents."
Continuing challenges
Ambassador Üzümcü spoke frankly about recent events in Syria and Salisbury, two of the most high-profile uses of chemical weapons in recent years.
The Syrian government signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013, when the OPCW oversaw the destruction of all declared stocks of chemical weapons and their precursors.
The Director-General explained: "This should have been the end of our activities in Syria, yet it was just the beginning. In April 2014, under my own authority, I established a fact-finding mission to determine the credibility of the persistent allegations of the use of toxic chemicals as weapons.
"Over the past four years the FFM, as we refer to it, has conducted investigations into 70 suspected attacks and has noted 14 likely or confirmed uses of chemical weapons in Syria. The FFM’s most recent deployment was to the city of Douma, where it finished its onsite collection of samples three weeks ago."
As part of the Salisbury investigation, the British government requested technical assistance from the OPCW to conduct scientific analysis over the suspected use of a nerve agent. Ambassador Üzümcü explained the process once a team of OPCW experts arrived from The Hague to provide support.
He said: "Environmental samples were collected from suspected contaminated sites and blood samples taken from the three main victims. Additionally, our experts examined the British authorities’ data and the results of their chemical analysis.
"The samples collected under full chain of custody were then brought back to the Netherlands for analysis at the OPCW Laboratory and four designated laboratories. When the Secretariat concluded its work, the results determined the identity of the toxic chemical used in Salisbury in agreement with the findings of the UK.
"In Salisbury, given the politically sensitive nature of the situation, there was a need for international validation of the identity of the toxic chemical determined by the British authorities. The designated laboratories were crucial for ensuring that the analytical results were irrefutable."
Hopes for the future
Ambassador Üzümcü’s time as Director-General of the OPCW will end in a little over two months and he concluded with a plea for continued support from valued scientific partners around the world.
He said: "Looking across the past and present activities of the OPCW, chemistry and chemists have been indispensable to the Organisation. The support of the scientific community has exemplified the values underlying the OPCW’s motto: working together for a world free of chemical weapons.
"As the Organisation increasingly finds itself moving into a post-destruction era, the need for science and scientists to support the CWC and its norms will only intensify. New scientific discoveries have the potential to both complicate and assist the mission of the OPCW and we cannot, nor should we want to, stifle and restrict innovation.
"We must recognise where new science can help fulfil our mission of a world free of chemical weapons. Looking to the Royal Society of Chemistry and other learned scientific societies, we rely upon your insights, advice, and contributions to ensure science is a force for human benefit that works to make the world a better place.”
More information
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons website contains a wealth of information about their work, continuing challenges and many achievements.