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- No chemistry in relations: the OPCW conference has seen disagreements among participants
No chemistry in relations: the OPCW conference has seen disagreements among participants
The 29th conference of member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has started in The Hague and will last until November 29. However, it will be difficult for the parties to reach a consensus. According to Russian Ambassador to the organization Vladimir Tarabrin, 18 of the 23 members of the OPCW are either already members of the EU and NATO, or associate themselves with them. Details - in the material "Izvestia".
Five against all
Russia is concerned about the fact that the West has paralyzed the activities of the Eastern European group in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands, Permanent Representative to the OPCW Vladimir Tarabrin, speaking at the 29th Conference of States Parties to the organization, which opened in The Hague.
The diplomat emphasized that 18 of the 23 members of the OPCW are considered participants or already associate themselves with the EU and NATO. "Thus the North Atlantic Alliance has actually monopolized two regional groups out of five, which violates Article 8, paragraph 23 of the Chemical Weapons Convention," Tarabrin noted.
29th Conference of the States Members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague
He cited excerpts from the document, which spells out that due consideration should be given not only to the equitable geographical distribution and importance of the chemical industry, but also to political and security interests.
"We consider the approach of the 18 members of the Eastern European group, in which the opinions of other participants are defiantly ignored, to be irresponsible. As a result of such actions, the work of the group is actually paralyzed and it is unable to take decisions that take into account the interests of all its participants," the Russian Permanent Representative to the OPCW concluded.
Vladimir Tarabrin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, during an online briefing on the occasion of the International Day for the Establishment of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
A conference of the OPCW member states is taking place in The Hague from November 25 to 29. The parties should discuss the situation in Ukraine, the Syrian chemical dossier and the organization's budget for 2025, in addition, the meeting plans to elect new members of the OPCW Executive Council for the next two years. Russia is among the three countries claiming two seats from the Eastern European group.
However, Moscow is sure that Russia's opponents will make every possible effort to prevent its election. As Vladimir Tarabrin said earlier, "the West can go to any provocation, forgery, pressure, threats and blackmail in order to block Russia's access to the OPCW's governing bodies."
Moscow's response
The situation heated up even a week before the conference opened. On November 18, the OPCW reported that it had managed to confirm the use of a chemical substance banned in combat conditions in the zone of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
In particular, three samples obtained near the village of Ilyinka in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine were studied. And the use of chlorobenzalmalonodinitrile, also known as Lilac gas, was recorded. The samples were provided by Ukraine.
The organization emphasized that "determining the source and origin of toxic chemical weapons" was not the task of the group of experts.
The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected all accusations against Moscow.
"It is regrettable to note that once again the OPCW technical secretariat has been involved in machinations involving the highly questionable collection of physical evidence in violation of the fundamental principles of ensuring its preservation (the so-called chain of custody)," the media publication said.
The ministry called the OPCW report "ambiguous", promising to "monitor all episodes of the use of toxic chemicals and chemical riot control agents by the armed formations of the Kiev regime in the most thorough manner, to duly inform the OPCW technical secretariat and the countries-parties to the convention".
On different sides
The debate at the end of the first working day of the conference also showed that the sides are far from cooperating.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Bonnie Jenkins accused Russia of "illegal use of chlorobenzalmalonodinitrile" in the war zone. She also touched upon the Syrian chemical dossier in her speech, reproaching Damascus for non-compliance with its obligations under the convention.
The head of the Russian delegation, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Kirill Lysogorsky, who followed the American, noted that "except for a few bright thoughts, the entire report was a political statement filled with lies and lack of logic." He added that the Russian Federation had handed over to the organization at least 30 notes confirming Ukraine's use of banned chemicals.
The deputy minister explained that the OPCW platform had repeatedly stated that the USA and its allies were involved in supplying Kiev with toxic, scheduled and non-scheduled chemicals, as well as means of their delivery. Lysogorsky emphasized that the deliveries are still being carried out to this day, and Ukraine "continues to systematically use toxic chemicals and chemical riot control agents against the Russian Armed Forces, civilians and the leadership of Russian regions located in the NWO zone."
The head of the Russian delegation explained that the relevant confirmations based on sample analyses are transmitted to the OPCW technical secretariat for dissemination among the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, as well as to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly. Lysogorsky also called for this information to be taken as seriously as possible, emphasizing that "the perpetrators of these crimes must be fairly punished."
He noted that the Russian Federation is in favor of universal cooperation within the framework of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and accession to it by all states of the world, recalling that it was Moscow that played a decisive role in Syria's accession to the convention, which, in turn, "helped to significantly reduce tensions in the region."
What experts think
Oleg Zheltonozhko, a specialist in radiation, chemical and biological defense, told Izvestia that it is quite difficult to accuse any state of using chemical weapons. This is because of the need to conduct rather complicated and lengthy analyses of samples taken in a particular place and to get unambiguous results from them.
According to the expert, chemical weapons are difficult to trace.
- There is such a concept as "persistence of weapons," which means the rate of their decomposition, change of chemical nature, and this affects the results of the analysis. There are types of weapons - incendiary and smoke weapons, which do not constitute chemical weapons, but can perform virtually the same functions," the analyst noted.
Natalia Yeremina, a doctor of political sciences and professor at St. Petersburg State University, said in a conversation with Izvestia that there are indeed problems in the work of the OPCW.
- This is due to the fact that all the data presented by Russia is actually blocked by other participants. For example, the refusal to recognize as significant the evidence of non-use of chemical weapons by President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. This information was ignored," the political scientist said.
According to her, during the Ukrainian conflict Russia provided, according to official data, dozens of notes.
- And it was determined what chemical warfare weapons were used. It is all banned. However, even this information in such a large volume was not perceived, no response was given, so the organization is turning into a kind of tool for beating Russia, it can only consider those tools that are far-fetched, which are directed against the Russian Federation," the expert believes.
She added that for the Russian Federation, participation in the OPCW is a way of collecting information, as it is impossible to expect any real work. The data collected by the Russian Federation is important for the preparation of indictment documents against those who provided these weapons to Ukraine and helped create them.
The analyst emphasized that initially the OPCW had high expectations.
- We are dealing with a very specific approach towards Russia. No positivity, no improvement in the work of this organization should be expected," summed up Eremina.
