Tue, December 02, 2008
THE HAGUE, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Countries which possess chemical weapons should do their utmost to comply with the 2012 deadline for the destruction of their chemical weapons, Chinese ambassador Zhang Jun said Tuesday at an annual meeting of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in The Hague.
Zhang, China's ambassador to the Netherlands and permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said that the speedy and complete destruction of chemical weapons within the time frame stipulated by the CWC is the fundamental objective of the convention.
China calls on the possessor states to honor their obligations in earnest and ensure the completion of the destruction by the 2012 deadline, he said on the first day of the 13th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the CWC.
To achieve this aim, the OPCW should continue to take the verification of the destruction as a priority and guarantee adequate resources for its verification, Zhang said.
China believes that industry verification is an important means of enhancing mutual trust and preventing chemical weapons proliferation, Zhang said. However, the verification mechanism should be strengthened in a gradual and orderly manner with due regard to the capacities of concerned states parties, he stressed.
Zhang raised the issue of abandoned chemical weapons by Japan in China during World War II, saying the weapons still pose a grave threat to lives, properties and the environment in China six decades on. This year they again caused human casualties in China.
"Although some progress has been made in the disposal of the abandoned chemical weapons by Japan, not a single item of the munitions has been destroyed," he said.
China is gravely concerned about this and urges Japan to act responsibly and take effective measures to speed up its work, Zhang said.
Zhang paid tribute to the CWC, saying the treaty has yielded significant results in chemical disarmament and non-proliferation since it came into effect 11 years ago.
But he warned that the complicated situation of international security poses new challenges to chemical disarmament and non-proliferation, and states parties need to improve their cooperation to advance the cause.
China has always supported the CWC and fulfilled all its obligations under the treaty, Zhang said. He said China will continue to contribute to the cause of realizing a chemical weapon-free world.
Under the CWC, which came into effect in 1997, all states parties which possess chemical weapons should destroy the weapons by April 29, 2012. Out of the six countries which have declared chemical weapons stockpiles so far, four have yet to complete the destruction of their stockpiles, namely the United States, Russia, India and Libya.
