Kaine Applauds Portsmouth-Based MV Cape Ray On Successful Mission

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Secretary of State John Kerry on the U.S. mission against ISIL, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine took the opportunity to applaud and welcome home the Portsmouth-based MV Cape Ray after a successful mission to neutralize the most dangerous of Syria’s declared chemical weapons.

“A container ship, the MV Cape Ray, is returning to the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Kaine remarked to Secretary Kerry. “A container ship with Merchant Marines and Department of Defense personnel – it’s the ship that has been in the Mediterranean involved in the complete destruction of the declared Syria chemical weapons stockpile.

“It’s a good news day,” he said.

In response, Secretary Kerry said, “I want to thank your people. I wish you would extend the huge gratitude of the administration and the world for this incredible job well done. … Getting 100 percent of the declared weapons out, 1300 tons of weapons out completely and destroyed, it’s the first time that has ever happened in a time of conflict in any part of the world.”

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