Russia, China Offer Way Of Keeping OPCW Together Amid Attributive Mechanism Row - Envoy

Russia and China have proposed a draft decision that will preserve the integrity of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) amid a split over the creation of a mechanism that would facilitate universal attribution of all chemical weapons attacks, Russian envoy to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin said on Monday.

THE HAGUE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2018) Russia and China have proposed a draft decision that will preserve the integrity of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) amid a split over the creation of a mechanism that would facilitate universal attribution of all chemical weapons attacks, Russian envoy to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin said on Monday.

"Russia and China have prepared and submitted a draft decision on preserving the integrity of the OPCW, which, we believe, contains the only possible way out of this situation, when assessments of the legality of attribution in the OPCW differ dramatically," Shulgin said at the 23rd OPCW conference.

According to Shulgin, a number of delegations strongly disagree with the possibility of an attributive mechanism within the OPCW.

"Russia and China propose to the executive board to form an open-ended expert group to review the actions and proposals of the technical secretariat on the implementation of the decision [to expand the mandate]," Shulgin added.

On June 27, the mandate of the OPCW was expanded in line with the UK-drafted motion that allowed it to assign responsibility for chemical weapons attacks. Moscow said it would not recognize the decision as legitimate, since only the UN Security Council is eligible to make such judgments, while the OPCW is only tasked with conducting probes. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Moscow is concerned about the future of the organization following this move, adding that Russia will try to change this decision.