The United States has enacted domestic legislation requiring the elimination of our chemical weapons stockpiles, and making it illegal for any entity -- government or private -- to engage in production, development, or stockpiling of chemical weapons. In addition, knowingly supporting anyone else or any other country in the acquisition or development of chemical weapons is, in my country, a criminal offense.
The United States has supported the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons vigorously from its onset. The Director-General noted in his speech just minutes ago, that a few of us were here in 1997 when the OPCW came into existence -- I was. The initial draft of what became the Chemical Weapons Convention was presented to the Conference on Disarmament in 1984 by then Vice President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush. The United States has provided expertise and leadership to the negotiations of the Convention, to the resolution of issues in the PrepCom, and to the Organization since the day it came into active existence.
So let there be no question or doubt that the United States is serious about the subject of chemical disarmament and nonproliferation of chemical weapons, as well as other weapons of mass destruction.
The United States has supported the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons vigorously from its onset. The Director-General noted in his speech just minutes ago, that a few of us were here in 1997 when the OPCW came into existence -- I was. The initial draft of what became the Chemical Weapons Convention was presented to the Conference on Disarmament in 1984 by then Vice President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush. The United States has provided expertise and leadership to the negotiations of the Convention, to the resolution of issues in the PrepCom, and to the Organization since the day it came into active existence.
So let there be no question or doubt that the United States is serious about the subject of chemical disarmament and nonproliferation of chemical weapons, as well as other weapons of mass destruction.