Washington. October 28. INTERFAX - Russia is not ready to accept that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is being transformed into an instrument of political pressure, and will make every effort to normalize its work, said Andrei Belousov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Office in Geneva, speaking at the First Committee of the General Assembly (GA).
"(...) We are not ready to agree with the transformation of the OPCW into an instrument of political pressure and the realization of the geopolitical interests of a narrow group of countries. Russia will continue to make every effort in the interests of restoring the rule of international law, maintaining the integrity of the Convention and normalizing the work of the OPCW," Belousov said.
He noted that a difficult situation has developed in the OPCW.
"This once authoritative international structure, where decisions were always taken by consensus, has been split due to politicization, dilution of the mandate, departure from the provisions of the Convention," the diplomat said.
According to him, a number of states have actually reformatted the organization "for the sake of their narrow-minded geopolitical attitudes."
He stressed that a vivid example of the politicization of the OPCW's work is the draft resolution of the UN General Assembly "Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention".
"From year to year, we urge its authors to start taking seriously the document they are submitting and to make appropriate efforts to restore its consensual nature. We have no illusions that it will be easy, but doing nothing at all is simply irresponsible," Belousov said.
The diplomat said that this year Russia's appeals were again ignored.
