UN General Assembly
1988

The shocking pictures of the consequences of the use of chemical weapons prompt me to appeal to all participants in the Geneva Conference on Disarmament to bring the now-far-advanced negotiations on a global ban on such weapons to the earliest possible conclusion. Only a world-wide convention ensuring the verifiable prevention of the manufacture, storage, transfer and use of chemical weapons can free mankind from the scourge of these cruel weapons for all time. My Government is playing an active part also in efforts to strengthen all instruments which can be utilized to prevent the use and proliferation of chemical weapons even before a global ban is in force. We welcome President Reagan's initiative calling for a conference of the signatories of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. While pursuing all these efforts, we must devote our entire energy to the task of achieving a global ban as the priority objective.