Political Quotes

“We cannot ignore now the fact that the Chemical Weapons Convention is an integral part of a continuum of arms control agreements that developed in the period since the Second World War. In that period we have embarked on undertakings that ban nuclear weapons in outer space, on the ocean floor, that limit nuclear weapons elsewhere in the world and have resulted in the removal, following deployment, of a whole class of nuclear missiles from Europe. The nations of the world have joined together in a truly global effort to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and they took advantage of the opportunity last year to extend the non-proliferation treaty indefinitely, without condition. We and the former Soviet Union forged ahead with a series of agreements limiting strategic offensive and defensive missiles and those agreements have now been broadened to include other successor states of the former Soviet Union. More than 2 decades ago the nations of the world agreed to ban biological weapons. With this agreement we are attempting to ban chemical weapons. The result of all this is certainly not a perfect world and all of our efforts are not completely successful. We know, for instance, that there are biological weapons in the world. We know that there will be chemical weapons in the world--even under this convention when ratified.”