Austria to provide strong impetus to realize goal of Ottawa Treaty: FM
Xinhua, December 3, 2016 Adjust font size:
Austria seeks to provide a strong impetus to realize the goal of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which is to create a world free of anti-personnel mines by 2025, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said on Friday.
"In the past 19 years, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention has saved countless people from becoming victims of these particularly insidious weapons," he said in a press release.
He said the signatory states to the convention have the goal of creating a world free of anti-personnel mines by the year 2025, in cooperation with international organizations and civil society representatives.
"As chair in 2017, we want to provide a strong impetus for the achievement of this goal," he noted.
Austria would also work towards bringing more states into the convention, to improve the effectiveness of aid to survivors of mine accidents, and for the clearing of minefields and the destruction of mine stocks.
Austria was voted into the chairmanship at the 15th conference of the convention in Santiago, Chile on December 1.
The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, was adopted in 1997. Enditem