Osman Al-Hajj, the representative of the International Eurasia Press Fund at the UN Geneva office, announced the report of the 20th session of the parties to the UN Disarmament Convention held in Geneva.
Ednews reports that he noted that on November 21, the French press published information about the recent clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The European press always pays attention to what is happening on the border, but they look at the issue defending the Armenians.
Then the representative gave a brief summary of other issues:
"Regarding the 20th session of the parties to the Disarmament Convention, I should note that because both countries, Azerbaijan and Armenia, are not parties to the convention, their dialogues are also limited. This suggests that the decisions made in this regard at the meeting are not correct.
In addition, I would like to mention that the delegation of Azerbaijan, which participated in the 20th session, made a very broad statement about the problem of landmines that the country is struggling with today. At the session, they gave extensive information about mined lands, killed and injured citizens. They also noted that due to the mines buried by the Armenian military, thousands of settlements and residences were destroyed.
Today, the government of Azerbaijan is doing everything they can to clear the lands from the mine contaminations. Although the Armenians promised many times, the mine maps have not yet been presented to the Azerbaijani side, which makes things more difficult and dangerous.
I should also note that only 5 minutes were allowed for the speech."
In addition, he presented a brief summary of other issues discussed in the session:
"At the meeting, a lot of attention was paid to the financing of the department's activities. In addition, many countries have for some time not submitted the regulatory report required by Article 5 of the Oslo Convention, which has been brought into serious discussion.
At the end of the 20th session, new member states were elected to be in the four committees of the Convention.
Victim Assistance Committee: Slovenia and Zambia
Committee on the Implementation of the Convention: Colombia, Sweden.
Committee on Strengthening Cooperation and Assistance. Algeria, Japan.
Cooperation Committee: Norway, South Africa.
Ambassador Thomas Göbel was elected as the President of the 21st Session of the Parties held in Geneva from November 20 to 24, 2023.