Ships Remove More Chemical Materials from Syria

The Danish-led maritime Task Group participating in Operation RECSYR successfully shipped out the second batch of chemical materials from the Syrian Arab Republic in support of the UN-OPCW Joint Mission as mandated by UN Security Resolution 2118. 

The chemical materials were verified by UN Joint Mission personnel before being loaded onto the Danish merchant vessel ARK FUTURA and the Norwegian merchant vessel TAIKO in the Syrian port of Latakia. The merchant vessels were escorted by two maritime Task Groups, the Danish-led Danish-Norwegian-British Task Group under the command of Danish Commodore Torben Mikkelsen and the Russian-led Russian-Chinese Task Group.

The Danish-led international contribution to the UN/OPCW maritime operation is coordinated from Aarhus, Denmark, where Admiral Danish Fleet, Rear Admiral Frank Trojahn has the overarching operational responsibility for the Danish, Norwegian and British maritime units.

The Danish-led maritime contribution is a multinational effort with elements from several national Danish agencies. In addition to the naval and merchant vessels provided by Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom, the Task Group contains a specialist CBRN element from Finland. Nationally, the Danish Army and Air Force and other national authorities, including the Danish National Emergency Management Agency and the Danish Customs and Tax Administration, are supporting the Task Group.

After the successful completion of yesterday’s operation Admiral Danish Fleet, Rear Admiral Frank Trojahn, said, “Denmark has not previously deployed a maritime Task Group with this number of wide-ranging capabilities from several national agencies in a multinational joint framework but I have noted the smooth execution of the operation and the frictionless collaboration between agencies and contributing nations. I am furthermore satisfied with the way the extensive number of exercises between the shipments has laid the foundation for a perfect execution of the operation. We are therefore well prepared and ready for the coming shipments."