US Committed to Destroy Its Remaining Chemical Weapons Stockpile

With its commitment to create a world free of weapons of mass destruction, the United States of America today reiterated that its commitment to complete chemical weapons destruction remains unwavering.

On his statement at Netherlands, US Representative to US Representative to the OPCW Executive Council Robert P. Mikulak said Sixty-Eighth Session of the Executive Council is notable particularly because it is taking place immediately after the final extended deadline for the destruction of chemical weapons.

He reports that the United States has destroyed 90 percent of its stockpile.

“We are working hard to complete destruction of the remaining 10 percent as soon as practicable.” -Mr. Mikulak

Recently, the United States submitted to the Council its detailed plan for doing so.

The United States is looking forward to briefing the Council on its plan later during the session, he added.

He stresses that the United States will faithfully implement this treaty obligation, as well as the additional measures contained in the decision reached at the 16th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

“We will continue our destruction program with full transparency so that others may judge for themselves how we are doing.” -Mr. Mikulak

He cites that the recent revelations about chemical weapons hidden by the Qadhafi regime are an unprecedented situation in the fifteen year history of the Convention.

The United States welcomes the responsible actions of the new Libyan Government in declaring these hidden chemical weapons, and we also welcome the Council’s March 27th decision addressing this serious situation, Mr. Mikulak noted.

“We appreciate Libya’s intention, as set out in that decision, “to address any matters that need to be clarified with regard to its declaration.” -Mr. Mikulak

Earlier this year, the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) completed the destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile at Deseret Chemical Depot (DCD) in Utah.

With the elimination of the Utah chemical weapons stockpile, CMA has safely destroyed nearly 90 percent of the Nation’s stockpile of chemical agent and has successfully completed its mission to destroy all chemical agent munitions and items declared at entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and assigned to CMA for destruction. The CWC, an international treaty ratified by the United States in April 1997, required the complete destruction of the Nation’s chemical weapons stockpile by April 2007. The United States was granted a five-year extension to April 2012 as allowed by the treaty.

The safe destruction of 27,473.65 U.S. tons (24,923.68 metric tons) of nerve and blister agents represents 89.75 percent of the Nation’s chemical agent stockpile and is the culmination of more than 20 years of work by thousands of men and women at seven chemical demilitarization facilities located around the nation.