Second Vice-President of Costa Rica meets with Executive Secretary

H.E. Kevin Casas Zamora, Second Vice-President of Costa Rica, paid a courtesy visit to Mr. Tibor Tóth, Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). He was accompanied by Ms Lydia Maria Peralta Cordero, Chargé d'Affaires of the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica in Vienna. Mr. Casas Zamora led the Costa Rican delegation to the fourth Summit of Heads of States and Governments of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place in Vienna, Austria, on 12 May 2006. The Executive Secretary provided an overview of the status of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the work of the Commission in establishing the verification regime. He underlined the democratic nature of the CTBT verification regime and stressed that International Monitoring System (IMS) facilities were assets to their host countries. The Executive Secretary offered support to Costa Rica in making its National Data Centre operational. Mr. Casas Zamora and the Executive Secretary also discussed the potential application of data and products for civil and scientific purposes, such as tsunami warning. Costa Rica signed the CTBT on 24 September 1996, the day the Treaty was opened for signature, and ratified it on 25 September 2001. Costa Rica hosts one IMS facility, auxiliary seismic station at Las Juntas de Abangares.