The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) has made a voluntary contribution of £2 million to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to support its ongoing work in the Syrian Arab Republic.
The funds will support OPCW's ongoing efforts to uncover the full extent and scope of Syria's Chemical Weapons Programme and ensure its complete elimination amid the country's evolving political landscape. It will also aid in investigating allegations of chemical weapons use and identifying perpetrators, in line with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), relevant decisions of the OPCW's policy-making organs and United Nations Security Council resolutions.
The voluntary contribution was formalised on 25 June 2025 in a signing ceremony held between the Director of Defence and International Security at UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Mr Stephen Lillie, and the OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Fernando Arias, at the OPCW's Centre for Chemistry and Technology.
Mr Lillie stated: "I am pleased that the UK has contributed a further £2 million to OPCW's Syria Missions. The fall of the Assad regime and the new Syrian governments commitment is an opportunity to finally eliminate the legacy chemical weapons programme once and for all. OPCW and Syria cannot do this without international coordination of funding and in-kind support from States Parties. The UK stands ready to support the Syrian government and the OPCW in this important work - it is the Syrian people that deserve to see an end to Assad's legacy of chemical weapons."
Director-General Arias remarked: "I wish to express my gratitude to the UK for its generous voluntary contribution to support our ongoing work in Syria. Together with States Parties, the Technical Secretariat stands ready to provide the new Syrian authorities with support to fulfil all its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention."
"To continue its work in Syria and carry out its future missions, the Technical Secretariat relies on the continuous financial support from States Parties, such as the generous contribution from the UK today," he emphasised.
Background
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) has been an active member of the OPCW since the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) entered into force in 1997. The UK is a member of the OPCW Executive Council, which is the OPCW's executive organ responsible for promoting the effective implementation of and compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention as well as supervising the activities of the Organisation's Technical Secretariat.
In February 2025, the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), accompanied by a high-level delegation from the Technical Secretariat, visited Damascus and met with Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and caretaker Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani. During the visit, Syria, at the highest level, expressed its commitment to achieving full compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and to working towards the full implementation of all its obligations under the treaty.
To ensure Syria's compliance with its obligations under the CWC, the OPCW currently implements three distinct mandates related to Syria's chemical weapons programme. These include verifying the accuracy and completeness of Syria's chemical weapons declaration, establishing the facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals as weapons, and identifying those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the country.
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.
