Defense Environment Alert 11/04/03

Defense Environment Alert

an exclusive biweekly report on defense policies for cleanup, compliance and pollution prevention

Vol. 11, No. 22--November 4, 2003

CWC PARTIES APPROVE EXTENSION TO INTERIM WEAPONS DISPOSAL DEADLINE

Parties to the international treaty on chemical weapons agreed in late October to extend interim deadlines for the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles held by the United States, Russia, and a third unnamed state believed to be South Korea, sources say. The three-and-a-half-year extension to the 45 percent destruction requirement under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) marks the first extension the United States has sought.

The extension gives these parties until Dec. 31, 2007, to destroy 45 percent of their respective stockpiles, according to an Oct. 27 press release from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the body that oversees compliance with the CWC. The original date for this level of destruction was April 2004. CWC state parties approved the extension at their Oct. 20-24 conference of the states' parties.

While the parties easily agreed to granting an extension, discussion at the session centered on the length of the extension and whether it should go beyond April 2007, the current deadline for destroying 100 percent of each country's stockpile, says a non-governmental source who observed the proceedings. By approving the 45 percent destruction extension, the parties de facto approved an extension to the 100 percent deadline, the source says. According to the OPCW press release, this deadline "has also been extended in principle, in compliance with the Convention's stipulations on final destruction."

Few chemical weapons were destroyed in the past year and a half, prompting the need for the 45 percent deadline extension, Pat Wakefield, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for chemical demilitarization and counterproliferation, testified last week before a House Armed Services panel. And Michael Parker, head of the Army's Chemical Materials Agency, told the panel, "We are confident we can meet the revised December 2007 date. "

The United States in the past has been loathe to consider future extension needs, saying the 100 percent destruction extension would be addressed at a later date. Despite this stance, U.S. officials have acknowledged the United States will need a five-year extension to the final destruction deadline. But the U.S. government has been reluctant to request extensions, as a way of pressuring Russia to continue with its weapons destruction efforts, according to the non-governmental source.