US authorities have destroyed their last stockpiles of chemical weapons, US President Joe Biden announced yesterday, completing the process that began in 1997, with the signing of the global convention to ban these extremely deadly weapons.

“For over 30 years, the US has worked tirelessly to eliminate its stockpile of chemical weapons [τους]. Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the last munition in this stockpile—bringing us closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons,” Mr. Biden said in a press release released by his administration.

All other states parties to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention had already destroyed their stockpiles, Fernando Arias, director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), announced in May.

Only the US remained to destroy its own stockpile, he had added, explaining that “70,000 tons of the world’s most dangerous poisons” had been eliminated under the watch of the institution he leads.

Along with the announcement by the US presidency, Republican Senate Baron Mitch McConnell announced Friday that the US military’s Blue Grass chemical weapons depot in Kentucky recently completed the process of destroying about 500 tons of deadly chemical agents, a four-year mission.

These were the last chemical weapons in the US military’s stockpile.

“Although the use of these deadly agents will continue to mar history forever, our country has finally fulfilled its promise to rid itself of this scourge,” Mr. McConnell said, among other things, after noting that chemical weapons were used ” in some of the most horrific episodes in terms of loss of life.”

In his own announcement, US President Biden urged all countries that have not already done so to sign the 1997 convention so that “the global ban on chemical weapons can reach its full potential.”

Without failing to emphasize that “Russia and Syria must return to compliance with the Convention and admit that they have undeclared programs, which were used to commit shameful atrocities and attacks.”

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced on Friday that all declared stockpiles of chemical weapons had been “irreversibly destroyed”, after the US confirmed that the process of eliminating its own stockpile, which began in 1997, had been completed.

“Ending the destruction of all declared stockpiles of chemical weapons is an important step,” OPCW Director General Fernando Arias said in a statement released by his agency.

The Hague-based Organization assured that this measure by the US, “the last state to hold” declared stockpiles, means that “all declared stockpiles of chemical weapons have been verified as irreversibly destroyed”.

But recent cases of chemical weapons use indicate the world must remain vigilant, warned the OPCW, which has received a Nobel Peace Prize.

In recent years, the agency has accused Syria of carrying out chemical weapons attacks during the country’s 2011 civil war; it has also investigated the use of a Soviet-designed nerve agent against a former Russian spy in Britain and opposition figure Alexei Navalny in Russia.

“Recent uses and threats to use toxic chemicals as weapons show that preventing their recurrence will remain a priority” for the OPCW, Mr. Arias summarized.