The conference is off to a good start. The opening business is complete and national statements begun, so far without too much drama. However, the U.S. statement will begin the day tomorrow, so we will see how that is recieved. The first few statements have generally put CW stockpile destruction on the top of the list of important issues for the conference to address. The representatives from South Africa and Cuba certainly highlighted CW destruction as one of the pillars of the CWC and that commitment to it must remain firm for the convention to remain strong. All of the speakers so far have urged all possesor countries to do whatever they can to meet the 2012 deadline. What remains to be seen are how the U.S. comments handle this issue.

Director General Pfirter, the first individual to address the conference immediately tackled CW destruction with the suggestion that this review conference not discuss it extensively. He remained optimistic that significant progress would be made in the next 4 years, and that if necessary, a special conference of the states parties be called to examine the issue. It is likely that despite the Director Generals suggestion, the 2012 deadline will be continually brought up as a fundamental issue for the conference.

In his address, the representative from South Africa, speaking for the African group of states parties, also put significant emphasis on the international assistance programs and the exchange of scientific and technical information and equipment under Article XI. Both the African group and Cuba, speaking for the Non-aligned movement of states parties to the convention and China (NAM), pointed out an imbalance of personnel employed at OPCW and called for a transparent, fair and geographically disperse recruiting strategy for staff to fill professional level positions.

On the topic of CWC universality, so far everyone seems eager to work with the states who remain outside of the convention so that they may become part of it. The representative from Slovenia speaking for the EU especially highlighted EU commitment to the CWC and their work on universality. She also affirmed their commitment to intensify this work and the suggestion that in the future efforts will need to be specifically tailored to each state that remains outside the convention. Director General Pfirter also addressed the issue of universality, and expressed his disappointment that several countries still resist the CWC. He instisted that despite the fact that the nations in the Middle East use the unstable situation there as a reason not to join the CWC, this is no excuse. It is his assertion that even in an unstable situation it is still possible, and even desirable, for them to stand with the rest of the world and renounce the scourge of chemical weapons. There is hope that progress currently being made with Iraq and Lebanon will further CWC adoption not only in the Middle East, but in all of the remaining nations.

As soon as the papers and statements are available online I will post links to them. So far only the message from the Secretary-General of the United Nations is listed on the OPCW website.

The provisional programme for the Open Forum on Wednesday is also now available.