The Government of the Slovak Republic has provided a financial contribution of EUR 20,000 to the Trust Fund for Syria Missions and the Trust Fund for the Implementation of Article X.
Slovakia's voluntary contribution of EUR 10,000 will support OPCW Technical Secretariat activities related to Syria. Its objectives include establishing the full scope of Syria's chemical weapons programme, verifying all declarable elements, supporting the development and implementation of a destruction plan, and investigating allegations of chemical weapons use, including the identification of those responsible.
An additional voluntary contribution of EUR 10,000 will support ongoing Assistance and Protection programmes earmarked for activities related to Ukraine.
The contribution was formalised on 1 July during a ceremony attended by Deputy Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the OPCW, Mr Peter Nagy, and Deputy Director-General of the OPCW, Ambassador Odette Melono, at the Organisation's Headquarters in The Hague.
Mr Nagy stated: "In line with the support of multilateralism, which has consistently been a cornerstone of Slovak foreign policy, Slovakia attaches great importance to the work of the OPCW in achieving the goals set out by the Chemical Weapons Convention. The present contribution, provided at the start of Slovakia's membership in the Executive Council, showcases that the strong political commitment of Slovakia goes hand in hand with tangible support to the Organisation."
"By providing extrabudgetary resources to the OPCW Trust Fund for Syria Missions and to the Trust Fund for the Implementation of Article X, Slovakia contributes to attaining the goal of a world free of chemical weapons, which is indispensable for international peace and security."
Deputy Director-General Melono said: "This contribution is another demonstration of Slovakia's commitment to supporting the Technical Secretariat in carrying out its mandate. With the active support of our Member States, including Slovakia's contribution, the Secretariat will be better positioned to support Syria in meeting its obligations under the Convention. The Secretariat will also continue to extend support to Ukraine, upon its request, in line with its mandate."
Background
The Slovak Republic has been an active member of OPCW since 1997.
To date, the Slovak Republic has contributed a total of more than EUR 190,000 to OPCW's trust funds, including the Trust Fund for the Centre of Chemistry and Technology.
Syria acceded to the CWC in 2013 under a stringent verification regime. While Syria submitted an initial declaration of its chemical weapons programme, the former Syrian government did not declare all its chemical weapons programme and attempted - unsuccessfully - to mislead the international community about the overall scope and scale of the Syrian chemical weapons programme. Furthermore, the Technical Secretariat documented and independently confirmed chemical weapons use in Syria both by the former Syrian military forces and by non-state actors, specifically ISIS/ISIL.
The fall of the Assad government in December 2024 has provided new grounds for the Secretariat to continue its mandated activities towards uncovering the full scope of Syria's chemical weapons programme and to eliminate it in line with the CWC. In February 2025, OPCW Director-General Arias visited Syria and held separate meetings with the Syrian President and Foreign Minister. They expressed Syria's recognition of all OPCW mandates, including the identification of perpetrators of chemical weapons use in Syria and reaffirmed Syria's full commitment to fulfilling its obligations under the CWC. In March 2025, the Syrian Foreign Minister visited the OPCW and addressed the Executive Council, where he renewed Syria's commitment to the Convention.
Since the visit by Director-General Arias to Damascus in February 2025, the OPCW Technical Secretariat deployed several times to Syria, involving visits to suspected locations, sampling, interviews, and collection of documents related to Syria's chemical weapons programme.
To better coordinate efforts and to provide a foundation for future deployments and potential new mandates, the Director-General created on 1 June 2025 the Office of Special Missions (OSM) in the Technical Secretariat. The work related to the Syrian chemical weapons dossier - verification of declarations and investigation of use of toxic chemicals as weapons - is now coordinated by the OSM.
The Secretariat's deployment to the Syrian Arab Republic in May 2026 marked an important step towards resolving the Syrian chemical weapons dossier. During the deployment, the Secretariat identified previously undeclared chemical weapons-related materials, confirming that elements of the former Syrian authorities' chemical weapons programme had been concealed from the Organisation. At the same time, the deployment demonstrated the constructive engagement of the current Syrian authorities, who are working closely with the Organisation to address the outstanding issues related to the chemical weapons programme inherited from the Assad era. These developments represent an important opportunity to establish the full scope of the former programme and advance its complete, verifiable and irreversible elimination.
In July 2026, under the authority delegated by the Conference of the States Parties (CSP), the OPCW Executive Council, at its 112th session, adopted a decision to reinstate the rights and privileges of the Syrian Arab Republic at the OPCW that were suspended since 2021. The decision was co-sponsored by 67 States Parties from different regional groups and adopted by consensus.
The OPCW Technical Secretariat has been monitoring the situation on the territory of Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022 in relation to allegations of use of toxic chemicals as weapons.
In 2024 and 2025, the Technical Secretariat conducted three Technical Assistance Visits (TAVs) to Ukraine upon Ukraine's request. The reports of all three TAVs confirmed that the samples collected by Ukraine on the battlefield contained the toxic chemical 2-Chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile, known as CS. The Convention explicitly prohibits the use of riot control agents as a weapon of war on the battlefield.
Article X relates to the provision of assistance and protection, on request, to any Member State in the event of the use or threat of use of chemical weapons. The Trust Fund for the Implementation of Article X was established in 2002 by the OPCW Technical Secretariat to meet costs associated with the implementation of requirements under Article X of the Chemical Weapons Convention. It is funded by voluntary contributions from Member States.
As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW, with its 193 Member States, oversees the global endeavour to permanently eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention's entry into force in 1997, it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.
In 2023, the OPCW verified that all chemical weapons stockpiles declared by the 193 States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention to that point since 1997 - totalling 72,304 metric tonnes of chemical agents - have been irreversibly destroyed under the OPCW's strict verification regime. With the support of the OPCW Technical Secretariat, Syria has recently begun work on amendments to its chemical weapons declaration.
For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
