Statement by the Federal Foreign Office on the Fourth Chemical Weapons Review Conference 

We regret that following two weeks of intensive negotiations in The Hague it did not prove possible to reach consensus on urgently needed steps to strengthen the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Chemical weapons have been used repeatedly in Syria since 2013, brutally killing hundreds of people, including many children, and injuring thousands more. “Islamic State” has used chemical weapons in Iraq, and there were attacks involving extremely dangerous nerve gas in public spaces in Malaysia in 2017 and in the UK in 2018.

In view of these severe violations of the CWC, Germany is working with many partners to reinforce the absolute ban on the use of chemical weapons, to restore the credibility of the CWC and to enable the OPCW to respond to these challenges.

Despite opposition from Syria and Russia in particular, it was possible to adopt a budget for the OPCW that will enable it to establish structures to identify those responsible for the chemical weapons attacks in Syria. However, we are disappointed that a few States Parties were not willing to identify violations of the CWC clearly and unambiguously and to support the necessary measures for further strengthening the CWC and OPCW. Germany and more than 50 other States Parties thus recorded their common position in a joint declaration: “We reiterate our strong commitment to work together for a world free of chemical weapons. We emphasise that any use of chemical weapons anywhere, at any time, by anyone, under any circumstances is unacceptable. We express the strong conviction that those responsible for the use of chemical weapons should be held accountable.