Friday, July 07, 2023

U.S. destroys last of its declared chemical weapons, closing a deadly chapter dating to World War I
Control room supervisor Lance Pappas consults a video monitor inside the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, outside Hermiston, Ore.
 (AP Photo/Jeff Barnard, File)
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By Andrew DeMillo, Thomas Peipert and Dylan Lovan - Associated Press - Friday, July 7, 2023


RICHMOND, Ky. — At a sprawling military installation in the middle of the rolling green hills of eastern Kentucky, a milestone was reached Friday in the history of warfare dating back to World War I.

Workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot destroyed rockets filled with GB nerve agent that are the last of the United States’ declared chemical weapons, and completing a decadeslong campaign to eliminate a stockpile that by the end of the Cold War totaled more than 30,000 tons, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced.

The weapons’ destruction is a major watershed for Richmond, Kentucky and Pueblo, Colorado, where an Army depot destroyed the last of its chemical agents last month. It’s also a defining moment for arms control efforts worldwide.

The U.S. faced a Sept. 30 deadline to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and was joined by 193 countries. The munitions being destroyed in Kentucky are the last of 51,000 M55 rockets with GB nerve agent - a deadly toxin also known as sarin - that have been stored at the depot since the 1940s.

By destroying the munitions, the U.S. is officially underscoring that these types of weapons are no longer acceptable in the battlefield and sending a message to the handful of countries that haven’t joined the agreement, military experts say.

OPCW confirms: All declared chemical weapons stockpiles verified as irreversibly destroyed

The United States of America, the last possessor State, completed the destruction of its declared chemical weapons stockpile

7 JULY 2023

THE HAGUE, Netherlands—7 July 2023—The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirms that the last chemical weapon from the stockpiles declared by all States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was verified as destroyed. The last chemical munition of the United States of America’s declared chemical weapons stockpile was irreversibly destroyed in accordance with the CWC on Friday, 7 July 2023 at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Kentucky.

“I congratulate all States Parties, and the United States of America in this instance, on this major achievement for the international community. The end of destruction of all declared chemical weapons stockpiles is an important milestone for the Organisation. It is a critical step towards achieving its mission to permanently eliminate all chemical weapons,” said OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Fernando Arias.

“This represents a historic success of multilateralism in the field of disarmament, and the work of a generation of diplomats and experts over the past 26 years. Yet, more challenges lie ahead of us, which require the international community’s continued attention. Four countries have yet to join the Convention. Abandoned and old chemical weapons still need to be recovered and destroyed,” the Director-General highlighted. “Recent uses and threats of use of toxic chemicals as weapons illustrate that preventing re-emergence will remain a priority for the Organisation. Rapid developments in science and technology, new dangerous toxic chemicals, more sophisticated equipment and production methods, better means of delivery, and the interaction between chemistry, biology, and artificial intelligence, present additional factors that will put the relevance of the Chemical Weapons Convention to the test. These provide the Organisation with new and challenging tasks, and an agenda for our common work that will remain an open one.”

“The OPCW Centre for Chemistry and Technology, which started operation in May 2023, is an essential tool to enhance the Organisation’s capabilities to address these threats. The international community can count on the Secretariat’s independence, expertise and readiness to play its part,” the Director-General concluded.

Since the CWC entered into force in 1997, the OPCW has verified the destruction of 72,304.34 metric tonnes of stockpiled chemical weapons, declared by countries around the world. The OPCW will continue to monitor the closure of the last two destruction facilities at Pueblo and Blue Grass in the U.S., including the disposal of waste resulting from the destruction process.
Background

As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW, with its 193 Member States, oversees the global endeavour to permanently eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention’s entry into force in 1997, it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.

For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

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