On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying described Syria’s recent move to submit a detailed destruction plan as “further progress” in the procedure of eliminating the Arab country’s chemical arms stockpile.

On October 27, the Hague-based OPCW announced that Damascus had submitted its declaration three days ahead of schedule, saying that it provided “the basis on which plans are devised for a systematic, total and verified destruction of declared chemical weapons and production facilities.”
The Chinese diplomat further stated that her country throws its weight behind the OPCW’s “positive role” in eliminating and verifying the chemical weapons arsenal in Syria, adding, “China will actively participate to promote effective implementation of the OPCW Executive Council’s decision.”

A team of experts from the OPCW and the UN are working on the ground in Syria to implement a UN resolution on scrapping the Syrian chemical arsenal. The United Nations Security Council approved the resolution on September 27.

The body has until November 1 to inspect the chemical weapons sites declared by the Syrian government and keep a tab on the destruction of the related facilities.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has pledged to fully cooperate with the international chemical experts tasked with overseeing the process of dismantling the chemical weapons stockpile in his country, which has been the scene of foreign-sponsored unrest since March 2011.

On September 14, the United States and Russia reached an agreement in Geneva on a framework that will see the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014. The deal was reached after Russia offered Syria to put its chemical weapons arsenal under international control and Damascus accepted the proposal.

SHI/SHI