, Britain has successfully destroyed its holdings of old chemical weapons, Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram announced today at the Imperial War Museum London.
To demonstrate that these weapons have been consigned to history, Mr Ingram is presenting a commemorative chemical weapon shell from the Second World War to the Museum which will be included in its permanent collection.
The event means Britain has met its obligation under the Chemical Weapons Convention to destroy its holdings of old, unusable weapons by April 2007. In total 3812 old chemical weapons have been safely destroyed at a cost of £10M. If further small quantities of such weapons are unearthed in the future, they too will be destroyed. Britain gave up its offensive chemical weapons capability in the 1950s.
Mr Ingram said:
“Today marks another landmark for our efforts to rid the world of these terrible weapons. We have met our obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and destroyed our old chemical weapons holdings ahead of schedule.
“The shells have been beyond military use for many years but destroying these heavily corroded and unstable weapons is a dangerous and challenging task. Our Armed Forces bomb disposal teams and the technical experts at Dstl Porton Down who undertake this task deserve our praise and thanks.
“Our goal is a world without Chemical Weapons and so we call upon all states to abandon their chemical weapons programmes and destroy their stockpiles, including legacy weapons.”
The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, said:
“The United Kingdom has long been an effective and committed advocate and implementer of the global chemical weapons ban. The OPCW is grateful for the United Kingdom's strong and unwavering support of the Organisation in its mission to eliminate chemical weapons forever through the effective application of the Chemical Weapons Convention by every nation. We commend the United Kingdom on meeting this obligation to destroy old chemical weapons in exemplary fashion”
Since the Chemical Weapons Convention came into force 10 years ago Britain has played a leading role in helping achieve its aim of banning all chemical weapons. To date 182 states have signed up to the Convention, and some 2.67 million munitions have been destroyed. Only 13 states are yet to join the Convention.
Background Information
April 29th is the 10 Anniversary of the entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) – a landmark arms control treaty which seeks to ban chemical weapons. 182 states parties are members. Libya joined in 2004, and Iraq intends to join in the near future.
The CWC has an effective verification regime. To date weapons inspectors have carried out over 2800 routine inspections in 77 countries. This clearly builds confidence in the treaty. Our Old Chemical Weapons destruction facility at Porton Down was inspected in January.
UK also plays a key role in the G8 Global Partnership which is helping Russia destroy its stockpile of Chemical Weapons. By implementing construction and procurement projects worth over £70M, Britain is directly helping to eliminate over 40,000 tonnes of chemical warfare agent which in the wrong hands would pose a real threat to security both in Russia and the rest of the world.
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