    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 25 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
    [Pages 1393-1394]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Statement on the Anniversary of the Geneva Protocol of 1925

    June 17, 2000

        Seventy-five years ago today, June 17, 1925, the international
    community took a major step toward protecting the world from the dangers
    of weapons of mass destruction by concluding the Geneva Protocol of
    1925.

    [[Page 1394]]

    In the aftermath of the terrible casualties caused by poison gas in
    World War I, the Geneva Protocol banned the use in war of chemical and
    biological weapons.
        More recently, the international community has worked to build on
    this achievement. The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) banned
    the development, production, and possession of biological and toxin
    weapons, and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) did the same for
    chemical weapons. Today, 135 countries are parties to the CWC, and 143
    are parties to the BWC. The United States has ratified both agreements,
    and our commitment to them has enjoyed strong bipartisan support.
        Today, one of the greatest threats to American and global security
    is the danger that adversary nations or terrorist groups will obtain and
    use chemical or biological weapons. The international agreements we have
    reached banning these weapons are a critical component of our effort to
    protect against this threat.
        In my 1998 State of the Union Address, I called on the international
    community to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention with a new
    international inspection system to help detect and deter cheating.
    Significant progress has been made in Geneva at the Ad Hoc Group of BWC
    States Parties toward achieving this goal. We urge all participants in
    this process to work toward the earliest possible conclusion of a BWC
    Protocol that will further strengthen international security.
        On this 75th anniversary of the Geneva Protocol, I call on the
    countries of the world who have not yet done so to join the Geneva
    Protocol, CWC, and BWC. I call on all parties to strictly adhere to
    these agreements and to work to strengthen them. It is more urgent than
    ever that, true to the words of the Geneva Protocol, their prohibitions
    ``shall be universally accepted . . . binding alike the conscience and
    the practice of nations.''