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'WMDs should not fall in wrong hands'

ABU DHABI — Weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) should not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands, Aida Abdullah Al Azdi, deputy director general for community services at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) has said.

Al Azdi said this during his welcome speech at a symposium organised here on the theme of "Proliferation of WMDs". The symposium, held on May 15 and 16 on the ECSSR premises here, was organised by the ECSSR in association with the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The symposium focused on the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which was launched in Cracow, Poland, in May 2003, by the US President George W.Bush. Witold Waszczykowski, Undersecretary of State for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, talked about the threat of WMDs and the PSI activities. He said, "Poland believes in the need to strengthen international treaties and regimes regarding WMDs."

Tadeusz Chomicki, deputy director of the department for security policy at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made a presentation on the origin of PSI. According to him, the world is facing two major challenges. "The first is the problem of rogue states, which are using illegal methods to obtain WMDs," said Chomicki,. The second challenge, he said, is the threat of terrorism. "The PSI was established to find solutions to these problems," he pointed out.

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