Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Explanation of vote by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy with regard to UNGA resolution "Cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons"

Mr. President,

We regret that we have to witness another attempt to bring up to the attention of the General Assembly a highly politicized and misbalanced document capable of exacerbating discords between the Member States rather than promoting cooperation between the UN and the OPCW.

It is the second attempt taken recently. It started in the autumn of 2020 when, upon initiative of our Western colleagues, UNGA adopted a biased anti-Syrian draft resolution on the implementation of provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

We see similar motives in today’s document. A question to our Western colleagues begs itself: What is the added value of the draft if 90 % of it ritually reproduce and commend “accusatory” conclusions addressed to Damascus? Apparently, they would rather that the General Assembly churn out same-type anti-Syrian resolutions every time the OPCW is mentioned in the headline.

The Russian Federation, as many other states, considers as illegitimate the decision of the Fourth Special Session of the Conference of the CWC States Parties that allowed the OPCW Technical Secretariat in excess of its powers to establish the so-called Investigation and Identification Team (IIT). Such “novelties” run counter to the CWC and undermine the prerogatives of the UN Security Council.

Every day we see more and more evidence that the US and its Euro-Atlantic allies seek to turn the OPCW (a specialized international mechanism, which is technical by its nature) into a tool for promoting their geopolitical interests. Initially, such politicized approaches resulted in the first IIT report which stands up to no criticism either in terms of its methodology and preparation, or in terms of data collection. Then followed the knowingly unworkable decision of the 94th session of the OPCW Executive Council, which demanded that Damascus must declare the chemical weapons it did not have.

Russia cannot recognize the legitimacy of either the IIT, or its report, or the follow-up decisions of the OPCW steering bodies.

We have a whole range of claims regarding the work of the OPCW Fact Finding Mission in Syria (FFM), in particular its investigation of the incidents in Khan-Sheykhun (2017) and in Douma (2018). Last year we convened an open “Arria-formula” meeting of the Security Council Member States, where we invited independent experts to initiate discussion of numerous violations that the OPCW Technical Secretariat committed when working on those cases. I call on all interested delegations to acquaint with its outcome materials that we circulated as official UNGA document А/75/649 dated 11 December 2020. The “uncomfortable” questions to the OPCW TS are numerous, and they have not been answered yet.

The delegation of the Netherlands eviscerated the draft resolution, made it void of its main essence, which is to give a comprehensive review of all tracks of UN-OPCW cooperation and of progress in that area. It might seem that the only item on the OPCW agenda is the Syrian chemical file and Syria itself. Should the draft still prefer to focus on country-specific aspects, it would be logical for the OPCW to give account of, e.g. progress with elimination of the US chemical stockpiles – the process that should have terminated long ago. But the draft does not say a word about this, neither does it reflect the crucial provisions of Article 11 of the CWC regarding social and economic cooperation of CWC States Parties.

We deem it rather indicative that the sponsors of the draft convened no real negotiations as to the text. The delegation of the Netherlands held only one round of informal consultations that in fact had a null practical result. Not a single reasonable comment that delegations made at that meeting was taken onboard in the final text.

We are convinced that by its very definition, a resolution on cooperation between the UN and the OPCW must be consensus-based. It is designed to be a political signal that reiterates unfailing support of the international community for the CW non-proliferation regime and the positive “nexus” between the UN and the OPCW. Russia would be glad to support such consensus, had this draft resolution met these criteria. But to our regret, the draft pursues only one goal – besmirch the Syrian power bodies and promote ideas that damage the CWC integrity and the OPCW authority.

As a responsible party to the CWC, we cannot let this happen. Therefore, the Russian Federation will vote against this politicized document. We call on all states who want to preserve the OPCW authority and have it effectively carry out its true task – enhance CW non-proliferation regime – to do the same.

Thank you.