Myanmar has finally ratified the chemical weapons convention

Myanmar has ratified the chemical weapons convention, a full 22 years after signing it.

It was the only ASEAN country not to be party to the arms treaty – in the company of five other non-signatories Angola, Egypt, North Korea, South Sudan and Israel, which also signed without ratifying.

Yes, Syria has ratified the agreement.

U Wunna Maung Lwin, Union Minister for Foreign Affairs, told a meeting of global watchdog the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at the Hague on July 9 that its parliament had unanimously approved ratification.

While the country signed the agreement on 14 January, 1993, “it took time for Myanmar to ratify it because of domestic priorities and capacity constraint”, the newspaper reported.          

The treaty will come into force after 30 days.

The move comes almost exactly one year after five journalists were jailed for 10 years after Unity Journal published an article about an alleged chemical weapons factory in Magwe.

The government denied its existence and the five were charged under the Official Secrets Act.  

Photo: “HQ of OPCW in The Hague”. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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