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Department Seal Confidence and Security Building Measures:
The Declaration of Mendoza
Regional Document Released by the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs,
U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC
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The Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Government of the Republic of Argentina, the Government of the Republic of Chile,

Convinced that total proscription of chemical and biological weapons will contribute to the strengthening of the security of all countries;

Determined to consolidate the region as an area of peace and cooperation, free from the scourge of these weapons of mass destruction;

Ratifying the respective unilateral declarations on non-possession of chemical weapons formulated by the three countries;

Agreeing with the need to prevent the dissemination of such weapons by means of a multilateral convention, being currently negotiated at the Conference on Disarmament, prohibiting completely chemical arms and their production facilities, uging all countries tthat manufacture and possess such weapons to be parties to the Convention;

Contributing to the confidence building measures agreed upon by the Party States of the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) Weapons, and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, which will hold its third Review Conference in Geneva from September 9 to 27;

Declare:

  1. Their total commitment not to develop, produce or acquire in any way, stockpile or retain, transfer directly or indirectly, and not to use chemical or biological arms;

  2. Until the future Convention on chemical arms enters into force, their commitment to study and analyze jointly all the necessary mechanisms for assuring the fulfillment of the agreement;

  3. Until the Convention enters into force in accordance with international law, their intention of establishing in their respective countries appropriate inspection mechanisms for the substances defined as precursors of chemical warfare agents;

  4. Their desire to cooperate closely to facilitate conclusion of a multilateral convention on the prohibition of chemical weapons and of subscribing simultaneously as original parties;

  5. Their right to use all peaceful applications of chemistry and biology for economic and technological development and for the well being of their people;

  6. Their conviction that the application of the Convention will create between the States Parties a sign of mutual trust that will allow substantial improvement of international cooperation in the exchange, among others, of chemical substances, related equipment and technology;

  7. Their purpose of contributing decidedly to the success of the Third Review Conference of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons and their readiness to examine ways of strengthening their verification mechanisms;

  8. Their hope that other countries in the region will join this agreement.

Signed in the City of Mendoza, on 5 September 1991, in two originals, in Portuguese and Spanish, both texts being equally authentic.

Francisco Rezek
for the Government of the
Federative Republic of Brazil		 Guido de Tella
for the Government of the
Republic of Argentina		 Enrique Silva Cimma
for the Government of the
Republic of Chile

[end of file]

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Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Department of State