CALI, Colombia, Nov 1, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Parties to the UN Convention on
Biodiversity (CBD) voted in Colombia Thursday for its next Conference of
Parties (COP), in 2026, to be held in Armenia -- which had vied for the
privilege with foe Azerbaijan.

Armenia won with 65 votes out of 123 cast in a secret ballot at the CBD's
16th Conference of Parties (COP16), winding down in the city of Cali, the
meeting's president Susana Muhamad announced.

The inharmonious neighbors both put forward offers to host COP17 in two
years' time, and representatives presented detailed pitches, complete with
videos highlighting their countries' natural beauty, to fellow delegates
earlier this week.

It had been decided at COP13 in Cancun, Mexico, that COP17 will be hosted in
a country from the central and eastern European region, which includes
Azerbaijan ally Russia.

Uzbekistan had also been in the running, but pulled out.

This was the first time the CBD parties had voted on the next host from among
two candidates, according to spokesman David Ainsworth.

In the past, parties had reached consensus on a candidate to put forward, but
this time, the appointed host region was unable to agree on one.

Former Soviet republics Azerbaijan and Armenia have seen decades of war and
tension over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway ethnic Armenian region in
Azerbaijan.

After a series of slow-moving negotiations, Azerbaijan rushed in troops last
year and swiftly seized back the area, whose entire population of nearly
120,000 people fled to Armenia.

The next, 29th, annual COP on climate change will be held in the Azerbaijani
capital Baku in November.

The international community has been ramping up pressure for an agreement
between the neighbors before COP29.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Azerbaijan in August.