U.S., Russia Receive Extensions to Chemical Weapon Destruction Deadlines

Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention agreed last week to extend the deadlines for the United States and Russia to destroy their chemical weapons stockpiles (see GSN, Oct. 20).

The eighth annual conference of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which ended Friday, agreed to extend Russia’s deadline for destroying 20 percent of its chemical weapons. Russia now has until April 29, 2007 to destroy 20 percent of its chemical weapons stockpiles, according to an OPCW press release. 

The conference also agreed to extend the deadlines of Russia, the United States and another treaty party for destroying 45 percent of their respective chemical weapons stockpiles, with the U.S. deadline now set at Dec. 31, 2007. The deadlines for the destruction of all U.S. and Russian chemical weapons have also “been extended in principle, in compliance with the convention’s stipulations on final destruction,” the OPCW said.

In addition, the conference approved an increase of more than 6 percent to the OPCW’s 2004 budget, which now totals more than $85 million (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons release, Oct. 27).

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