Former US President Bill Clinton has expressed joy after an anti-chemical weapons law he signed while in office finally bore fruits.
Clinton served for two terms between January 1993 and January 2001 within which time he signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.
He signed an executive order on June 25, 1999 designating the Department of State as the authority responsible for coordinating implementation of the treaty.
"As I said then, we could give our children something our parents and grandparents never had - broad protection against the threat of chemical attack," Clinton said on Sunday in a statement on his official Twitter handle.
"I’m gratified to see the US has fulfilled that legacy this week, destroying the last of our remaining stockpile of these horrific weapons. We must redouble our international efforts to ensure a total global ban and a more humane world."
The United States on Friday, July 7, announced that it had destroyed the last of its stockpile of chemical weapons at a sprawling military installation in eastern Kentucky.
The destruction of rockets filled with GB nerve agents completed a decadeslong campaign dating back to World War 1 to eliminate a stockpile more than 30,000 tons of the weapons.
"For more than 30 years, the United States has worked tirelessly to eliminate our chemical weapons stockpile," President Joe Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
"Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile - bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons."
Although the US had destroyed a greater part of its chemical weapons stockpile than any other country, it had been in violation of the treaty because there had been no national authority to formulate the industry declaration.
But Clinton's signing of the convention removed the final legal obstacle to full US compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
The CWC, which entered into force on April 29, 1997, required states-parties to destroy all chemical weapons within 10 years.
It also required signatories to the treaty to declare all treaty-related civilian facilities to the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons - the international agency charged with implementing the treaty.