Chemical weapons convention: time of high expectations.

Delegates to the Conference on Disarmament, in the wake of a new United States proposal, expressed the belief that an international convention banning chemical weapons may be completed in 1992.

"This is a time of particularly high expectations", said Tessa Solesby of the United Kingdom, Conference President for June, during the second part of the 1991 session (16 May-27 June, Geneva).

On 16 May, the United States had announced it would deal substantively with two key obstacles in the negotiations on a chemical weapons convention.

In a message to the Conference, United States President George Bush said his country would drop its insistence on a right of retaliation with chemical weapons. He also said it would not insist that the United States and certain other countries should keep 2 per cent of their chemical weapons stockpile until all chemical weapons-capable States had signed the convention.

The United States proposed that the convention prohibit the use of chemical weapons under any circumstances. It said it would also commit itself to the destruction of all of its chemical weapons stocks and former production facilities within 10 years of the entry into force of the convention, and assist other States m destroying their weapons.

Welcoming these proposals, delegates stressed that real prerequisites had...