A/RES/52/38 Page 30 2. Requests the Secretary-General, within existing resources, to provide assistance to the Central Asian countries in the preparation of the form and elements of an agreement on the establishment of a nuclearweapon-free zone in Central Asia; 3. Decides to consider the question of the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia at its fifty-third session under the agenda item entitled "General and complete disarmament". 67th plenary meeting 9 December 1997 T Status of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction The General Assembly, Recalling its previous resolutions on the subject of chemical and bacteriological (biological) weapons, in particular resolution 51/45 T of 10 December 1996, adopted without a vote, Determined to achieve the effective prohibition of the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and their destruction, 1. Welcomes the fact that the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction6 entered into force on 29 April 1997 with eighty-seven original States parties as well as the fact that seventeen States have subsequently become States parties to the Convention; 2. Notes with satisfaction that the First Conference of States Parties held at The Hague in the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 6 to 23 May 1997 successfully launched the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with Ambassador Jose M. Bustani of Brazil as the first Director-General; 3. Emphasizes the necessity of universal adherence to the Convention, and calls upon all States that have not yet done so to become States parties to the Convention without delay; 4. Stresses the vital importance of full and effective implementation of, and compliance with, all provisions of the Convention; 5. Notes with satisfaction that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has quickly initiated verification activities, including the processing of declarations of States parties and the conducting of inspections of chemical weapons-related and other declared facilities as required by the Convention, and underlines the importance of the early initiation of activities under all relevant provisions of the Convention by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons; 6. Stresses the importance to the Convention that all possessors of chemical weapons, chemical weapons production facilities or chemical weapons development facilities, including previously declared possessor States, should be among the States parties to the Convention, and welcomes recent progress to that end; /...