On 11 July 2007, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the global chemical weapons watchdog agency in The Hague, confirmed the destruction of the entire chemical weapons stockpile in Albania. Albania is the first nation to completely destroy all of its chemical weapons by eliminating more than 16,000 kilograms of chemical warfare agent. The Albanian stockpile included mustard, lewisite, adamsite and chloroacetophenone agents.

The United States funded and assisted in the destruction of the weapons, which had likely been acquired in the 1970s by Enver Hoxha, Albania’s former Stalinist leader.

This disarmament campaign was conducted to fulfil Albania’s obligations under the multilateral disarmament treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Any State that possesses chemical weapons and is party to the CWC is obligated to destroy these weapons. Destruction is verified on-site by OPCW inspectors.

In commending Albania’s achievement, the OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, welcomed Albania’s completion of this campaign, which had required it to overcome considerable technical challenges associated with chemical disarmament.

Since the CWC entered into force in 1997, 182 nations have joined the independent, multilateral disarmament agency to abolish chemical weapons. As of 11 July 2007, only seven States had not signed the CWC (Angola, North Korea, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia and Syria) while six others have signed the Convention but not yet ratified it (Bahamas, Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Israel and Myanmar).

Press release