Statement by Canada to the 106th Session of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Executive Council

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The Hague, Netherlands, July 9, 2024

Excellencies and distinguished colleagues,

I congratulate you, Ambassador, on your new role as Chair of the Council. You can count on Canada’s full support and cooperation.

Chair, despite the verified destruction of stockpiles of chemical weapons which States Parties have declared to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the threat posed by chemical weapons remains.

Canada once again condemns Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine. We remain deeply concerned by reports of the use of riot control agents, and potentially even more toxic chemicals, as weapons of war by Russian forces. Any Russian use of riot control agents in combat, which is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention, must stop immediately.

We join with others in demanding answers from Russia to the questions posed last year pursuant to Article IX, paragraph 2. Russia has so far failed to reply in good faith to this legitimate request to clarify. We hope the Executive Council can take action on this matter, as we requested under Article IX, paragraph 3.

Further, Russia still has not answered questions posed in August 2020 by 45 States Parties regarding the poisoning of Alexei Navalny with a Novichok agent. With Mr. Navalny’s passing in Russian detention, he is no longer able to advocate for himself. Russia must cooperate with the Technical Secretariat, investigate, and report honestly on the circumstances surrounding this use of a chemical weapon on its own territory.

Chair, Canada was pleased to receive, alongside other States Parties, briefings from the Declaration Assessment Team (DAT), which reported that some of the issues with Syria’s initial declaration have been resolved. That said, there remain 19 outstanding issues to address. The Syrian Arab Republic continues to withhold critical information that is necessary to assess Syria’s chemical weapons programme. If Syria has indeed completely declared and destroyed its chemical weapons programme, as it claims, it should have no reason to withhold key details.

Partly in response to violations of the Convention in the context of the Syrian civil war and the Russia’s war against Ukraine, Canada considers it necessary to continue providing the OPCW with extrabudgetary funding, so that the organization can address chemical weapons threats of all types beyond what is permitted by its regular budget. Canada’s Weapons Threat Reduction Program supports critical OPCW operations such as Syria investigations, provision of chemical detection equipment and training for Ukraine, physical and cyber security upgrades for the OPCW, and chemical profiling – all priorities for which the OPCW regular budget regrettably fell short. To date, Canada has provided over Can$46 million in voluntary contributions to the OPCW. We remain grateful for the extrabudgetary contributions provided by other States Parties, noting in particular the many contributions by members of the G7-led Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, which remains steadfast in its support for the OPCW.

Chair, the most recent IIT report found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Daesh perpetrated the September 2015 attack in Marea with a form of sulfur mustard. This is an important reminder that chemical weapons are not only employed by States. Chemical terrorism remains a clear and present danger to the object and purpose of the Convention. We will be speaking in greater detail later in the Council’s agenda, but for now allow me to reaffirm that the OPCW can count on Canada’s continued support to the Syria missions and other efforts to improve chemical security around the world. This includes through cooperation with partners such as the OPCW and INTERPOL, who are working to make it more difficult for non-state actors to acquire and use chemicals as weapons.

Chair, Canada welcomes the progress report on the implementation of the Africa Programme. The report highlighted two particularly important developments: CHEMEX Africa, the first-of-its-kind large-scale capacity-building exercise to strengthen emergency response capabilities across Central, West and South Africa; and the OPCW designation of Algeria’s National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology of the Gendarmerie Nationale for the analysis of authentic environmental samples. Canada welcomes these key initiatives to strengthen the implementation of the Convention in Africa. We were proud to support the CHEMEX Africa event as well as the OPCW peer-to-peer training for customs institutions in Côte d’Ivoire in May 2024.

Chair, Canada considers it critically important that we integrate gender perspectives across all spheres of disarmament, including in the context of the Convention and the work of the OPCW. We were pleased to see this principle implemented in practice at CHEMEX Africa, where 29 of 80 (36%) of the first responders in attendance were women. Gender equality allows for better targeted policies and services, which are more inclusive and impactful, yielding better, more meaningful results for the OPCW and the global non-proliferation and disarmament framework. Later this week Canada will be one of many countries making a joint statement on how the OPCW can better use gender perspectives to improve its responses to the challenges the Convention faces.

Chair, I ask that the full version of this statement be made an official-series document of the 106th session of the Executive Council and published on Catalyst and the public website of the OPCW.

Thank you.