The only nation remaining in possession of chemical weapons is the United States. China anticipates that the US will keep its promise to destroy all of its chemical weapons stockpiles by this autumn, according to a Chinese defence official on Monday.
When asked to react on the US’s announcement at the Fifth Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) that it intends to finish destroying its chemical weapons stockpile by this autumn, Defence Spokesperson Senior Colonel Tan Kefei made the statements.
According to the spokeswoman, the CWC is an essential building block for international security governance. The Convention’s main goal and the States Parties’ top duty are both the destruction of chemical weapons.
The Convention mandates that stockpiled chemical weapons must be destroyed within ten years of its adoption in 1997. The laudable objective of creating “a world free of chemical weapons” outlined in the Convention has been significantly hampered by the frequent delays in the elimination process.
The spokesperson said that more than 99% of chemical weapon stockpiles around the world have been eliminated in the 26 years after the Convention went into effect, with seven out of eight states claiming stocks have been completely destroyed.
The only nation that still has chemical weapons on hand at this time is the US. China expects that the US will honour its obligations and show its sincerity through deeds, the statement continued.
The spokesperson added that China urges the Japanese side to up its sense of urgency and increase investment to destroy the ACWs as soon as possible, in a clean, thorough manner.
“In stark contrast to the near-complete destruction of global stockpiles of chemical weapons, the destruction process of Japan’s abandoned chemical weapons (ACWs) in China is severely lagging behind, and the destruction plan has been overdue many times,” said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson emphasised that in order to hasten the destruction process and remove barriers to achieving “a world free of chemical weapons,” China hopes that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
And the international community will step up supervision and inspection on the matter of Japan’s ACWs in China.
