Nations Get CW Treaty Extensions

By Chris Schneidmiller
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Member nations of the Chemical Weapons Convention last week approved requests from Russia, the United States and several other nations for additional time to eliminate their stockpiles of toxic agents (see GSN, Dec. 6).

The extensions were granted Friday shortly before states parties approved the final report for their 11th annual conference, after 9 p.m.

Most other issues had been resolved hours earlier.  Delegates needed additional time to finalize language within the report, and the late approval did not represent dissent over the revised weapons disposal schedules, said Peter Kaiser, spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

“I don’t think it was anything of controversy whatsoever,” he said.

“It went to the very end because the Iranian were obstreperous.  They were not helpful,” according to a U.S. official, who said Iranian diplomats used the meeting to criticize the U.S. deadline failure.

There was minimal discussion during the final minutes of conference itself — Pakistan expressed support for the decisions and for rapid chemical demilitarization, while India, one of the nations to receive an extension, said that it has already destroyed 70 percent of its chemical weapons.

The treaty sets the date for full weapons disposal at April 29, 2007, 10 years after the convention entered into force.  It allows for extensions up to April 29, 2012.

Washington and Moscow sought and received the full five years, as did the governments in Beijing and Tokyo for destroying weapons abandoned by the Japanese army in China during World War II.

The other countries requested shorter extensions.  India now has until April 28, 2009, to finish its work; Libya was given until Dec. 31, 2010; and South Korea has until Dec. 31, 2008.

Albania received extensions of its intermediate deadlines but says it is able to finish disposal of an estimated 16 tons of mustard agent by the original deadline.  Work there could begin this month.

“We think it was a good conference, we got all the extensions, the final deadlines,” a Russian delegate to the agency said today.  “I understand that the American delegation is satisfied with it also, as well as other nations.”

The conference required that Russia and the United States accept visits by members of the OPCW Executive Council to chemical weapons sites as a condition of receiving the extensions.  The two countries own the great majority of the more than 71,000 known metric tons of chemical weapons agent to be destroyed under the treaty.

The trips would be aimed at ensuring the two countries are making progress in destroying the banned weapons and agents.  They would begin in 2008 and would include at least one trip to each relevant site during the extension period.

Kaiser said the organization hopes that the decisions last week will spur the nations to greater efforts in eliminating the munitions.  “If you’ve got the conference saying this is it, these are the deadlines, then that focuses attention on getting the work done,” he said.

Washington said recently that disposing of the U.S. stockpile would not end before 2023, while Moscow has vowed to destroy its entire 40,000 metric-ton stockpile by 2012.  Experts have argued that is unlikely to occur.

“We think we are going to get the deadline,” the Russian official said.  “We are strongly directed toward this.”

Washington’s schedule is based upon the best data available, the U.S. official said.  Final destruction of nearly 28,000 metric tons of chemical agent could occur before 2023, or later.  “The short answer is we don’t know when we’re doing to be done,” he said.  “We’re trying to be as candid as possible.”

When 2012 arrives, nations that failed to meet the deadline will have to explain why that occurred and how they plan to respond to the situation, the U.S. official said.  They could be required to increase the reporting on their activities, but are unlikely to face penalties, he said.

The conference also approved the 2007 OPCW budget of 75 million euros, down from 75.6 million this year.  The spending plan includes funding for 200 inspections of industrial sites that use potentially dangerous chemicals, along with 175 missions to chemical weapons depots and destruction facilities.

Conference states again pledged their commitment to bring all nations into the treaty (see GSN, Dec. 8) and to ensure they meet their obligations to internally establish the treaty’s provisions upon joining (see GSN, Dec. 7).

The number of states parties to the treaty increased by six this year to 181.  That leaves 14 outside, including tough cases such as North Korea and several Middle Eastern nations.

There is hope for treaty universality, but it will not be an easy task, said Paul Walker, director of the Legacy program at Global Green USA, who attended the conference.

“They’re sort of into the red zone now and in the red zone, it always gets tougher to score a touchdown,” he said.

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