[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.''