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CHILE RATIFIES TREATY ON TRANSPARENCY IN ARMS ACQUISITIONS

  January 31, 2006

Chile has become the eleventh country of the Organization of American States (OAS) to ratify the Inter-American Convention on Conventional Arms Acquisitions, a treaty that promotes confidence-building measures in the region.

In a brief ceremony held today at OAS headquarters, Chile’s Permanent Representative to the OAS, Ambassador Esteban Tomic, deposited the instrument of ratification with Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, saying that the treaty “without a doubt represents a substantial contribution of the OAS toward peace and security in the hemisphere.”

Ambassador Tomic highlighted the challenges still facing the treaty, pointing out that “we should work towards making it universal, considering that 20 OAS member states have signed it and only 10, now 11 with Chile, have ratified it.” Tomic called for the treaty’s full implementation and for preparations to begin for the First Conference of States Parties, scheduled to take place in 2009.

The Secretary General said that “the commitments acquired in the Convention constitute an important step toward achieving of one of the essential purposes established in the OAS Charter, that of reaching an effective limit on conventional weapons which would allow a greater number of resources to be dedicated to the economic and social development of member states.”

The treaty was adopted in Guatemala in 1999, and to date it has been ratified by: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Reference: E-015/06