On Thursday 28 September, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service hailed the completion of the full destruction of the chemical weapons possessed by the Russian Federation, which was announced the previous day by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Nearly 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons have been destroyed.
This complete destruction "is an important step towards the achievement of the goals of the Chemical Weapons Convention", the spokesperson stated in a press release.
Saying that the EU and its member states were "staunch and consistent supporters of the universalisation and effective implementation of the Convention", the spokesperson stated that the remaining stockpiles of chemical weapons elsewhere in the world should be eliminated "at the earliest possible date, thus bringing the goal of a world free of chemical weapons closer".
After the Cold War, Russia and the USA were committed to destroying their chemical weapons before April 2012, under the terms of the 1997 Convention, before postponing the deadline several times. Moscow postponed the deadline to December 2015, then to 2020. Washington had set itself the deadline of 2023. Nearly 200 countries have joined the Convention. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)