British foreign minister Boris Johnson called on parties to the international Chemical Weapons Convention to meet in June and agree ways to strengthen the agreement in the face of recent uses of banned weapons.
“We join our partners today in calling for a special session of Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in June to agree action to support the Convention and its implementing body, the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons)," Mr Johnson said in a statement.
"Together, we will ensure that the global ban on chemical weapons and their use is upheld and enforced."
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Johnson cited examples of where chemical weapons had been used this year.
“We have to confront the reality that chemical weapons have been used numerous times in recent years, in defiance of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention," he said. "Assad’s brutality in Syria, and the attempted murders in Salisbury pose a grave threat to the Chemical Weapons Convention and to the rules based order that keeps us all safe."
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