Dmitry Medvedev: Ensuring biological security should be on the permanent agenda of the CSTO and other regional organizations

Today, under the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, a meeting was held on measures to intensify international cooperation of the Russian Federation to prevent and combat new coronavirus infection and other epidemiological diseases.
The meeting discussed issues relating to the intensification of international cooperation to combat coronavirus infection, as well as other epidemics that may threaten humankind.

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The Security Council website quotes Dmitry Medvedev, deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation: “It is obvious that such cooperation is extremely important now. In order to cope with the problem, in addition to the internal decisions that we make and that are most important, international cooperation needs a new impetus. From the very beginning, Russia has established regular contact with the relevant agencies of other countries and we continue to advocate strengthening the authority of the World Health Organization. It is important that the discussion of issues related to disease control and diagnostics is also taking place in such major regional organizations as the SCO and BRICS, which we are part of.”
“We must increase our efforts to promote our approaches abroad. For this purpose, I suggest that we think about designing a strategy of the Russian Federation’s actions on the world stage in the fight against epidemiological diseases under current conditions. It is also necessary to include the issue of ensuring biological security in the permanent agenda of the CSTO and other regional organizations. And, of course, to increase the sharing of experience and best practices with the neighbouring countries and beyond.”
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council reminded that today Russia is actively developing a coronavirus vaccine and has already achieved considerable success. “However, we should not live only by today and by the results achieved; we need to think in longer terms, because such extreme situations are possible in the future. Therefore, for drugs to reach people as soon as possible, we need to pay special attention to the establishment and development of platform-based process solutions for vaccine development. Besides, it is important to establish rules for quick registration procedures at the legislative level,” Dmitry Medvedev said.
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