United States to Completely Destroy Its Chemical Weapons Stockpile This Year?

The White House on Friday released a statement saying it’s on track to completely destroying its chemical weapons stockpile by this fall.

The announcement precedes next week’s Fifth Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague.

The US will destroy its last remaining chemical weapons by the fall of 2023, President Joseph Biden announced ahead of next week's international arms control conference in The Hague.
"We are well on our way to completing the destruction of our chemical weapons stockpile by this… pic.twitter.com/uC8ZdITWvT

— S p r i n t e r (@SprinterFamily) May 13, 2023

“Looking forward to my time in The Hague to lead the U.S. Delegation to the Fifth Chemical Weapons Convention Review Conference. The #CWC is irreplaceable in our fight to ban chemical weapons,” U/S of State for Arms Control & Int’l Security Bonnie Jenkins said.

Looking forward to my time in The Hague to lead the U.S. Delegation to the Fifth Chemical Weapons Convention Review Conference. The #CWC is irreplaceable in our fight to ban chemical weapons. @OPCW @usembthehague @StateAVC https://t.co/lO2V9xsYbs

— U/S of State for Arms Control & Int'l Security (@UnderSecT) May 11, 2023

From the U.S. Department of State:

Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ambassador Bonnie D. Jenkins will travel to The Hague, the Netherlands to attend the opening of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Centre for Chemistry and Technology and lead the U.S. Delegation to the Fifth Chemical Weapons Convention Review Conference (CWC RevCon).

While in The Hague, the Under Secretary will deliver the U.S. National Statement to the Fifth CWC RevCon, hold bilateral meetings to discuss U.S. priorities on arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament, meet with members of civil society, and deliver remarks at side events.

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From The White House:

Chemical weapons have wrought unthinkable horrors upon our world, and should never again be developed or deployed—period. That’s the commitment the world made when the Chemical Weapons Convention created the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 1997—and it’s a commitment we must renew every day until our world is free from the threat of chemical weapons.

Next week, the United States and our fellow States Parties will gather for the Fifth Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention to review our progress and determine what more we must do to rid the world of chemical weapons.

As we work together toward our shared goal, the United States is leading by example. We are on track to complete the destruction of our chemical weapons stockpile by this fall—a disarmament milestone that upholds the highest standards of transparency and public safety. We are steadfast in our support for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ new Center for Chemistry and Technology, which will help the Organization better carry out its verification, inspection, and attribution responsibilities, and build the capacities of others to counter chemical weapons. And, together with our partners, we will continue to strengthen the Organization’s ability to address nontraditional chemical threats that have emerged in recent decades to ensure it can face the challenges of today.

The United States will continue to stand with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to prevent the stockpiling, production, and use of chemical weapons around the world. We should all work together to encourage the remaining nations to join the Chemical Weapons Convention. And I urge every nation to stand for the truth and join us in promoting accountability for violations of this treaty, including Syria’s use of sarin and chlorine and Russia’s use of Novichok nerve agents. The use of chemical weapons is never acceptable, and the world can be assured that the United States will not rest in this fight against impunity.

We must not stop until all children can grow up in a world without the scourge of chemical weapons.

Forgive me if I don’t believe the comments by our current administration.

Can we trust our own government to destroy its remaining stockpile of chemical weapons?

As Infowars noted, China and Russia want the United States government to speed up the process of destroying its chemical weapons stockpile.

Signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which took effect in 1997, committed to dispose of all chemical munition stockpiles. Legally, the US is required to do so by the end of this year. The US pledged to destroy its last remaining chemical weapons stored in depots in Colorado and Kentucky by September 30, 2023.

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Moscow and Beijing have repeatedly urged Washington to speed up the disposal process. Russia and China released a joint statement last month “insisting that the US, as the only [CWC] member state that has not completed the destruction of chemical weapons, expedites the elimination of its chemical weapons stockpiles.”

Russia disposed of all of its chemical weapons arsenal in 2017. China has not declared any chemical weapons of its own, but there are old stockpiles abandoned by Japan on Chinese territory during World War II. These weapons are currently in the process of being destroyed.