The US has destroyed the last of its declared chemicalweapons stockpile, President Joe Biden said on Friday, bringing to an end a decades-long effort to eliminate the deadly weapons first used on a large scale in World War 1.
As part of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which was ratified by the US Senate in 1997, the US and other signatories are required to destroy their chemical weapons stockpile by September 30.
"Today, I am proud to announce that the US has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile — bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons," Biden said in a statement. The US stockpile of chemical warfare agents reached nearly 40,000 tonnes by 1968, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Chemical weapons are responsible for some of the most horrific episodes of human loss. Though the use of these deadly agents will always be a stain on history, today our nation has finally fulfilled our promise to rid our arsenal of this evil," US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said.According to the UN, chemical weapons killed nearly 100,000 people during World War 1 and have caused more than 1-million casualties around the world since then.
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