The Kingdom of Spain has voluntarily contributed EUR 350,000 to the Trust Fund for Syria Missions of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
The voluntary contribution was formalised on 12 December 2025 in a signing ceremony held between the Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Spain to the OPCW, H.E. María Consuelo Femenía Guardiola, and the OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Fernando Arias, at the Organisation's Headquarters in The Hague.
Ambassador Femenía Guardiola stated: "Spain supports the plan for the destruction and verification of chemical weapons in Syria. It is for this reason that Spain provides a voluntary contribution to the Trust Fund for Syria Missions - the highest so far -, in order to guarantee the necessary security of the mission and team, and the monitoring, verification and destruction of the programme."
The Director-General stated: "I thank the Kingdom of Spain for its strong and consistent support to the OPCW. Today's contribution once again demonstrates Spain's firm commitment and dedication to upholding the norms and principles of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The collective efforts of States Parties will remain essential to our shared mission of advancing the goal of a world free of chemical weapons."
"The tasks we face in Syria are at the core of the Convention. Practical support from States Parties, such the one from Spain, will be essential to bring the Syrian chemical weapons dossier to an early end," he added.
Spain's contribution will support OPCW's missions and activities to determine the full scope of Syria's chemical weapons programme, as well as investigations of alleged chemical weapons use and the identification of perpetrators in the Syrian Arab Republic.
Background
Spain has been an active member of the OPCW since 1997 and is currently a member of the Executive Council. In Subsidiary Organs, Spain is represented on the Advisory Board on Education and Outreach.
To date, Spain has made voluntary contributions totalling more than EUR 1 million to OPCW trust funds. Since 2023, Spain has made a total of EUR 470,000 voluntary contributions to the Trust Fund for Training, Trust Fund for Security and Business Continuity, Trust Fund for a Centre for Chemistry and Technology.
Syria acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 2013 under a stringent verification regime. While Syria submitted an initial declaration of its chemical weapons (CW) programme, the former Syrian government did not declare all its CW 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 created an opportunity to uncover the full scope of Syria's chemical weapons programme and to eliminate it in line with the CWC. In February 2025, the OPCW Director-General 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 the Director-General to Damascus in February 2025, the OPCW Technical Secretariat deployed several times to Syria, involving visits to suspected locations, sampling, interviews, collection of documents related to Syria's chemical weapons programme, and coordination.
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 since 1997 - totalling 72,304 metric tonnes of chemical agents - have been irreversibly destroyed under the OPCW's strict verification regime.
For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
