THE HAGUE, February 25. /TASS/. About 20 countries have objected to Russia’s proposal to add certain chemicals to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) list of controlled chemical weapons, the British delegation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Twitter on Monday.
"The UK has joined 20 countries in objecting to a proposal to add a broad array of chemicals to the list of materials controlled by the CWC," the tweet reads. According to the British delegation, the OPCW Technical Secretariat "has been clear some elements of proposal don’t meet criteria for inclusion."
At the same time, the British delegation pointed out that the United Kingdom "fully supports Canada, Netherlands and US proposal to add two families of Novichok chemicals, including the substance used in Salisbury, to CWC control lists." "This demonstrates resolve of the international community to address a very real threat posed by new types of chemical weapons," another tweet said.
A meeting of the OPCW Executive Council initiated by Russia is taking place in The Hague on Monday. The meeting is dedicated to plans to change the CWC list. According to the Dutch delegation to the OPCW, Russia calls for including five families of chemicals in the list. However, the Russian mission has not yet commented on the matter.
Canada, the Netherlands and the United States put forward an initiative to add two families of the so-called "Novichok" chemicals to the list at the OPCW Executive Council’s previous meeting held on January 14. Russia came up with serious objections and refused to be associated with the Council’s decision on the matter.