UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said they are confident that the organizing of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, was not accompanied by corruption.

Guterres stated this during a press conference in Yerevan, ahead of the aforesaid event. Responding to another question, he reiterated that progress has been noted since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. There is progress, but it is not enough.

They are still far from the necessary level. In the preparatory process for COP17, Armenia, acting as the chair, has demonstrated an outstanding ability to find mutual agreements between different stakeholders, the UN Secretary General said.

Therefore, Guterres added, they hope that this conference will be successful. It will not solve the problem of biodiversity loss once and for all, but it can provide significant progress, he noted.