THE HAGUE, November 20. /TASS/. Members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have rejected the Russian-Chinese idea of creating an international expert group to look into the consistency of the initiative to grant the OPCW the right to attribute responsibility for the use of chemical weapons with the Chemical Weapons Convention. The vote took place during the 23rd Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague on Tuesday, a TASS correspondent reported.
A total of 112 countries participated in the vote, 30 of them supported the Russian-Chinese project, while 82 voted against it.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia and China came up with an initiative to set up an international expert group to look into the decisions concerning the establishment of an OPCW attribution mechanism, made by the OPCW Technical Secretariat.
A special session of the Conference of the States Parties in late June decided to give the OPCW Technical Secretariat the right to attribute responsibility for the use of poisonous substances. In order to setup a relevant mechanism, the Technical Secretariat put forward an initiative to raise the organization’s 2019 budget by more than two mln euros. Russia has on numerous occasions opposed attempts to turn the OPCW into a punishing organization. According to Moscow, in case the OPCW is granted the right to attribute responsibility for the use of chemical weapons, the question of the organization’s infringement upon the exclusive prerogatives of the United Nations Security Council will arise.