Over the past 15 years, all chemical weapons stockpiles have been destroyed in the world. Tens of thousands of tons of hazardous substances have already disappeared from the face of the earth, so that no one can use them anymore. These are the conditions of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
On April 29, 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force. 188 out of 198 UN member states became its participants. Egypt, Somalia, Syria, Angola and North Korea have not joined, while Israel and Myanmar have signed but not yet ratified the treaty.
The presence of chemical weapons on their territory was officially recognized by the United States, Russia, the Republic of Korea, India, Iraq, Libya and Albania. Most of all hazardous substances were found in Russia and the United States - 40 and 31 thousand tons, respectively.
The main obligation assumed by the parties to the Convention was to ban the production, use of chemical weapons and the destruction of all their stocks by April 2007. Since it later became clear that very few people would have time to do this in time, it was extended until April 2012.
In the course of fulfilling the obligations, only three countries made it to the appointed date. These include Albania (2007), Republic of Korea (2008) and India (2009). The rest, for certain reasons, asked for a delay for some more time.
Libya has disposed of only 54% (13.5 tons) of its chemical weapons stockpiles. This causes concern in the international community, since during the civil war, control over toxic substances was seriously weakened. In this regard, the UN Security Council last year adopted a resolution on the non-proliferation of such weapons in this country.
As of April 29, 2012, Russia managed to destroy only 61.9% (24,747 tons) of the chemical weapons available on its territory. The main problem of such a delay is explained by the fact that the disposal of the remaining part, consisting of highly hazardous and obsolete substances, must be carried out very carefully, since any violation of technology can lead to a disaster. In addition, the elimination of chemical weapons requires huge financial costs - over seven years, the country spent $ 2 million on this program. Russia undertakes to destroy the remnants by the end of 2015.
As for the United States, it has managed to dispose of 90% of its existing chemical weapons within the specified timeframe. However, she plans to stretch the destruction of the remaining 10% until 2023. The reason for this is the same complexity of disposal and lack of funds.
In total, as of the end of January 2012, 50 thousand tons of toxic substances were destroyed in the world. This represents approximately 73% of all reserves.
