Russia is urging the United States to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpiles ahead of the established deadline, Russia’s chief delegate, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Georgy Kalamanov told the 89th session of the OPCW Executive Council.

"We insistently call upon Washington to consider its capabilities regarding the elimination of declared chemical weapons and to follow in our footsteps to do that ahead of the declared deadline in strict accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention," he said.

Kalamanov recalled that the United States still possessed a large arsenal of chemical weapons.

"US officials have been regularly telling us about what they describe as successes in conducting systemization work," Kalamanov said. "In fact no chemical weapons elimination work has been conducted for the past several years.".