Germany hosts 10-year anniversary of Chemical Weapons Convention

Posted : Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:46:02GMT

Berlin - Renewed effort is required to achieve the destruction of all chemical weapons, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Tuesday ahead of a conference in Berlin marking the 10th anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). "The world urgently needs new impulses in disarmament and in non-proliferation," Steinmeier said.

He characterized the CWC, which requires its 182 participants to destroy their chemical arsenals by 2012, as "unique."

Representatives of 41 CWC states are to gather in the German capital for a three-day conference beginning Wednesday.

Rogelio Pfirter, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, is to open the conference with Steinmeier.

Almost all the world's countries are members of the CWC, while a further six have committed themselves to not undermining the convention.

The United States and Russia are currently destroying their stockpiles at specially constructed facilities. In terms of the convention, all chemical weapons are to be destroyed by April 29, 2012.

The seven countries not party to the CWC are: Angola, North Korea, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia and Syria.