US President Joe Biden on Friday announced that the United States has fully destroyed its decades-old stockpiles of chemical weapons, fulfilling a commitment under the three-decade-old Chemical Weapons Convention.

“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,” Biden said.

“It marks the first time an international body has verified destruction of an entire category of declared weapons of mass destruction,” Biden said in a statement.

The US President further said that for over 30 years, the US worked tirelessly to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile.

As part of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which was ratified by the US Senate in 1997, the US and other signatories are required to destroy their chemical weapons stockpile by 30 September 2023.

The US was the last of the Chemical Weapons Convention’s signatories to complete the task of destroying their “declared” stockpiles.