Statement by the representative of the Russian Federation to the First Committee of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly Vladimir Yermakov in the First Committee on “Other weapons of mass destruction” cluster
Mr. Chairman,
In follow-up to the statement by the U.S. delegation made at the end of yesterday’s (October 17) meeting we would like to thank once again all our partners including the United States who provided assistance in implementing the State Program of the Russian Federation on the completion of elimination of the chemical stockpiles. As we all have already emphasized it is an event of epochal scale.
However, we have to draw your attention once again to the incorrect information regarding the allocations from the U.S. budget for elimination of chemical weapons in Russia. Unfortunately, for some reasons our American partners continue already for many years to operate blatantly with highly exaggerated and de-facto unsubstantiated figures.
We are far from arguing that 1 billion dollars were earmarked from the U.S. budget for that purpose. At the same time this amount can be considered as correct only for the internal US usage, but it is simply indecent when it comes to announcing these figures at the international level since in reality not more than 20% of so beautifully presented amount were in reality transmitted from the U.S. to the Russian budget.
Overall, as a State which has already fulfilled its obligations under the CWC Russia would like to recommend our American partners to be more mindful and responsible with regard to the process of elimination of chemical weapons in the United States. In fact, all of us can recall that during the elaboration of the CWC text it was the United States who insisted on setting the fast-track timeframe for global chemical disarmament. Just take a look at the text of the Convention. It clearly designates April 2007 as the ultimate deadline for the final elimination of chemical weapons.
Already in the mid 1990-s we highlighted that it was simply unrealistic to eliminate such massive stockpiles of chemical weapons possessed by Russian and the U.S. within just a decade. The U.S. partners did not listen to us. They said they would manage it themselves and help us. At that time, Russia trusted this promise.
OK, we are now in 2017. Russia indeed managed to eliminate its chemical weapons arsenal. And what is actually going on with our U.S. partners? Perhaps the time has come for all of us to think about international assistance to the U.S. on elimination of its chemical weapons stockpiles under strict international control. Russia as well as the OPCW as a whole do have all necessary experience and technology to that end.
Probably our Polish friends as the traditional initiators of the resolution in support of the OPCW should think about abandoning yet another confrontational and unjustified wording regarding Syria, and instead to elaborate constructive and acceptable for everyone provisions in support of the U.S. Program on elimination of chemical weapons that has been delaying for more than a decade.
