By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia has destroyed more than 24,000 metric tonnes – or 60 percent – of its chemical weapons stockpile, the industry and trade ministry said.
“We have set a goal to destroy 100 percent of chemical weapons in Russia by 2015. At the moment, two facilities have already completed their chemical weapons disposal tasks,” Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Georgy Kalamanov said.
Mikhail Babich, chairman of the State Commission on Chemical Demilitarization, said Russia was making a huge effort to complete the process as soon as possible.
He said “all states outside the legal frame of the (Chemical Weapons) convention should join it immediately, and all states parties should comply in full with all provisions of this treaty”.
So far, Russia has destroyed almost all chemical weapons scheduled for disposal in 2011. Six chemical weapons disposal plants are operating in the country.
The 188 states parties to the Convention initially planned to destroy all chemical weapons in the world by 2012. Russia and the US, who have 40,000 and 27,000 metric tonnes of chemical weapons respectively, said they were behind schedule and the deadline was postponed till Dec 31, 2015.