ABOLITION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS: An Update on Russian and American Demilitarization On the Second Anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention

ABOLITION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS:

An Update on Russian and American Demilitarization

On the Second Anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention

A Legacy Program Roundtable sponsored by Global Green USA

In cooperation with Green Cross Switzerland and Green Cross Russia

Co-hosted by

Senator John Kerry

Senator Evan Bayh

Representatives Edward J. Markey

Representative Christopher Shays

Representative Albert Wynn

Representative Constance Morella

Senate Russell Office Building - Room 188

Wednesday May 26, 1999

8:30AM 12:00 PM

8:30 -- 9:00AM Registration

Welcome

Dr. Paul F. Walker, Legacy Program Director
Senator/Representative TBD

9:00 -- 10:15AM American Chemical Weapons Demilitarization
Dr. Theodore Prociv, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army

10:15 -- 10:30AM Break

10:30 -- 11:45AM Russian Chemical Weapons Demilitarization
BGen. Thomas Kuenning, Director, Cooperative Threat Reduction

11:45 -- 12:00PM Final Comments
Senator/Representative TBD

The Roundtable is free and open to members of Congress, congressional staff, press, industry, and the public. Please RSVP to Ginny Leikam at 202-879-3181.

Global Green USA is the American affiliate of Green Cross International founded by Mikhail Gorbachev six years ago, working towards a sustainable global environment. The Legacy Program is a joint Russian-Swiss-American effort to facilitate on a bipartisan, cooperative basis the cleanup and redevelopment of military lands. A major focus of the Legacy Program is the safe and environmentally sound destruction of weapons inventories, including conventional, chemical and nuclear. This roundtable will focus specifically on American and Russian efforts at demilitarizing over 70,000 tons of chemical weapons at sixteen major stockpile sites and hundreds of non-stockpile sites.

The US Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention on April 25, 1997. The Russian Duma ratified the CWC on November 5, 1997. The CWC obliges all parties to abolish chemical weapons arsenals by 2007 with a 5-year extension option to 2012. The CWC has been signed by 169 countries and ratified by 121 (as of April 5, 1999).