A statement from Armenia about Azerbaijan's use of weapons containing chemical elements during the aggression against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in fall 2020 has been disseminated at the 26th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Armenian delegation expressed regret that the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons did not send a fact-finding mission of the OPCW to investigate the use of the weapons containing chemical elements.

The Armenian delegation participating in the Convention from 29 November to 2 December in The Hague was led by Georgi Kocharyan, Head of the International Security Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During the conference, the implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the current challenges and the next steps were discussed. Fernando Arias was re-appointed as the Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The head of the Armenian delegation, as the representative of the country which holds the chairmanship of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), delivered the joint statement of the CSTO member states during the conference. The statement referred to the inadmissibility of the use of chemical weapons during armed conflicts, the need to maintain the technical direction of the organization and its non-politicization. The CSTO member states have emphasized the importance of maintaining the objectivity and impartiality of the Technical Secretariat in promptly responding to requests from the States Parties to the Convention on the alleged use of chemical weapons in armed conflicts.