Novichok nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War emerged as a lethal tool due to their use in attempted assassinations recently. Two such attempts involving deadly Novichok nerve agents in Salisbury, UK (2018) and Omsk, Russia (2020) raised doubts about Russia’s existing tactical CW arsenal.
Ajey Lele replies: Disarmament is all about the lessening or withdrawal of weapons and military forces. It was the Geneva Convention of 1925 which spoke about limiting the spread of weapons made using biological and chemical materials. This ‘Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare’ entered into force on February 8, 1928. Almost after five decades, in March 1975, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) entered into force.
The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control treaty that outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors. This convention came into force on 29 April 1997. This convention is the effort of some 20 years of negotiations at the Conference of Disarmament (CD).
The nerve agent Novichoks poisoning episode in United Kingdom once again put a question mark against the efficacy of the international arms control regime such as Chemical Weapons Convention. The Novichoks events involving a former Russian spy and his daughter as victims, triggered a diplomatic crisis and a pitched geopolitical manoeuvring as fingers pointed at Russian agency as the chemical agent in question was originally developed to circumvent the international arms control regime by the country in the 1980s and stockpiled for possible tactical use, such as State sponsored assassinations.
OPCW marked the 20th anniversary of its formation on the April 29, 2017; it is indeed laudable to note the efforts of the organisation in fostering international cooperation to strengthen implementation of the Convention and promote the peaceful uses of chemistry. Presently, the civil society, academia, industry experts and state parties are discussing range of possible policy recommendations and suggestions to set an agenda for the Fourth Review Conference to be held during November 19-23, 2018 at OPCW, The Hague.
The 4th Review Conference to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) will be held in 2018. The Member States will, in light of the recent experiences in Iraq and Syria and in accordance with the regime's seven core objectives, continue to clarify the focus and balance of activities going forward.
In the last few years, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) originally designed to eliminate chemical weapons, has paid attention also towards economic and technological developments and assistance and protection against chemical weapons with the help of international cooperation and assistance.
Even as the uncertainty over the alleged use of chemical weapons use in Syria deepens, the cautious US response to the situation has been conditioned by the lack of viable military options as well as its Iraq war experience.
The Third Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is scheduled to take place in Hague during 8-19 April 2013. The previous two review conferences were held in 2003 and 2008. They stressed on the ‘Universality’ of the CWC. This conference is also expected to continue along the same principle.
Civil society has played a very important role in the framing of the regime against chemical weapons. Following the adoption of the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972, Civil society actively supported negotiations that led to the adoption of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1992. However after coming into force the relationship between CWC and Civil Society underwent an important change.
