Nations Urge Rapid End to Chemical Weapons

By Chris Schneidmiller
Global Security Newswire

THE HAGUE — Nations that possess chemical weapons this week pledged their commitment to eliminate their stockpiles, while a host of other countries pressed them to ensure that work is finished within the schedule set under international treaty (see GSN, Nov. 28).

Delegates from 105 nations gathered here this week yesterday to open the four-day 11th Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

One of the primary issues being considered at the meeting is the requests for extensions to the final deadline for member states to completely destroy their chemical arsenals.  The treaty sets the deadline at April 2007, but allows the finishing date to be pushed back as far as 2012.

Russia, the United States, and China and Japan jointly are requesting the full five years, while India, Libya and South Korea have sought shorter extensions.  Only Albania, holding an estimated 16 tons of mustard agent, is expected to close out its arsenal by next spring.

Actual consideration by delegates of the extension requests is largely occurring behind closed doors or in informal meetings.  The Executive Council to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has backed all the petitions save those from Russia and the United States, and is expected to recommend those as well before the conference makes its final decision on Friday, a diplomatic source said.  “It’s just a matter of when, not a matter of if,” he said.

All chemical weapons possessor states have made “significant strides” in disposal efforts over the last year, said Rogelio Pfirter, director general of the treaty’s monitoring body, in his opening statement to the conference.  Fourteen disposal facilities are operating around the world, and nations have to date destroyed 22.5 percent of the global stockpile.

However, the United States recently acknowledged that it would not finish its work until 2023, and experts question whether the elimination of weapons in Russia, or of Japanese weapons abandoned decades ago in China, can end by 2012.

This issue was clearly on the minds of speakers at the opening plenary sessions to the meeting.  They expressed their concerns, however, in broad terms and rarely named any of the chemical weapons states.

“The (Nonaligned Movement) CWC states parties and China express our deepest concern about the current pace of the destruction process,” said Oscar de los Reyes Ramos, Cuba’s envoy to the organization, speaking yesterday for the NAM states and Beijing.  “We reaffirm that all the provisions of the convention must be upheld to the letter.  This equally applies to the deadline set for the destruction of chemical weapons.”

“At this conference, we shall … agree to extension requests that are before us for decision.  However, we emphasize the need for all approved extensions to be predicated on effective management of the destruction process and high levels of international transparency and local security,” said Stephen Brady, Australia’s representative at the organization.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, in a speech today that took aim at the United States and Israel without identifying those nations by name, asked whether the U.N. Security Council could address violations of the treaty.

Representatives from the weapons states said they understood the seriousness of their work, but highlighted their progress and the difficulty of actually destroying the munitions.

“Experience has shown that the task of eliminating the legacy of chemical weapons stocks has proven more difficult than any of us imagined,” said Ambassador Eric Javits, head of the U.S. delegation at the conference.  “While there are great challenges, the commitment to complete destruction of all CW stocks is very clear.”

The chemical weapons holders “face technical, financial, environmental and legal problems” as they conduct disposal, said Russian envoy Victor Kholstov.  He said that only 20 percent of the international assistance pledged to Moscow for its disposal of 40,000 metric tons of chemical agent has arrived.  However, Russia counts only the money it receives directly, not funds given to firms contracted by Western nations, said Paul Walker, director of the Legacy Program at Global Green USA.

Russia spent more than $700 million this year on disposal efforts and plans to allocate nearly $1 billion in 2007.  As of yesterday, it had destroyed more than 6,000 tons of blister and nerve agents, he said.

Beijing and Tokyo have so far recovered more than 1,700 World War II-era munitions from various sites around China, said Takeshi Nakane, director general for disarmament, nonproliferation and science at the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

A number of nations said they supported plans to have Executive Council members visit destruction facilities, particularly in Russia and the United States, to ensure that work is progressing.  The envoys from Moscow and Washington did not discuss the matter in their statements.

Tension was also evident in comments from speakers representing Cuba, Indonesia and other developing nations regarding the treaty’s Article 11, which calls on member states to facilitate the “fullest possible exchange of chemicals, equipment and scientific and technical information” to promote peaceful uses of chemistry.  They made the case — mostly obliquely, though Cuba made a clear reference to the United States — that developed nations are not meeting their obligations under the provision.

“The ‘have-nots’ obviously want what the ‘haves’ have,” Walker said.  The developed nations, however, fear that their technology and materials could be diverted to create weapons, he said.

There was more consensus among delegates on the need to continue bolstering the ranks of treaty members and for all states parties to meet major commitments upon joining.

The Chemical Weapons Convention has 181 member nations, six more than at this time last year, and only 14 nations remain outside the treaty.  The Bahamas, Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Israel and Myanmar have signed but not ratified the treaty, while Angola, Barbados, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, North Korea, Somalia and Syria have never signed on.

Treaty nations must fulfill seven requirements under Article 7, which include developing domestic legislation and administrative rules to enforce the treaty’s provisions and designating a national authority to act as a liaison to the organization and other member countries (see GSN, Dec. 1).  Speakers applauded the Executive Council’s recommendation that the organization and states parties for another year continue their intensified program of assistance to nations in meeting those commitments.

“It is particularly important that states parties playing prominent roles in the manufacturing, processing and trade of chemicals fully meet their obligations for national implementation,” Javits said.  “The United States will continue its efforts to provide assistance in this area.”

Speakers also largely offered support for the planned 2007 OPCW budget.  Funding is proposed to be identical to this year, when the organization received $88 million.  With inflation, that is a drop of about 1.7 percent.

The only budget issue still being negotiated is a shift away from OPCW inspections of Schedule 1 and 2 chemical production facilities in favor of an increase in visits to those identified as “other chemical production facilities,” the diplomatic source said.  Schedule 1 sites produce minimal levels of chemicals that have little to no use outside of warfare.  Schedule 2 facilities produce in limited amounts specialty chemicals that could be precursors to warfare agents.  These sites have been inspected regularly and repeatedly.  However, there are more than 5,000 “OPCFs” internationally which use technology that could be used to develop chemical precursors or weapons agents, the source said.

The organization wants to increase the number of inspections in 2007 at these sites to 200, 20 more than conducted this year.  Inspections at the Schedule sites would drop, though an exact number was not available.  China has opposed this move, the diplomatic source said, and discussions are continuing.

“This is a reduction in numbers and not in quality,” Pfirter said.

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