CSTO States support strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention

 

CSTO, CIS and SCO Member States support the initiatives submitted by the Russian Federation aimed at real strengthening and institutionalization of the regime of the Biological Weapons Convention. Gennady Gatilov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva, made this statement at the general debate of the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva on November 28. Gennady Gatilov’s statement is posted on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

According to him, “The Russian Federation has proposed and is promoting initiatives aimed at real strengthening and institutionalization of the BWC regime.”

Namely, the creation of an open-ended working group to draft measures and proposals on BWC strengthening, mobile bio-medical teams under the Convention to provide assistance in case of biological weapons use and help combat epidemics of different origins, a mechanism to conduct investigations on alleged violation of BWC obligations under its Article 6 and a Scientific Advisory Committee within the BWC to review the scientific and technological developments relevant to the Convention and to provide appropriate advice to its States Parties.

According to Gennady Gatilov, the CSTO, CIS and SCO States support these proposals, “as reflected in these organizations’ foreign ministers’ earlier joint statements in support of the BWC.”

As you may recall, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO CFM) adopted a joint statement in support of the BWC. The statement is posted on the official website of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

“The CSTO Member States reaffirm the importance of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (BWC) as one of the pillars of the international security architecture. Now, as in 1975, its aim remains relevant: to exclude completely the possibility of biological agents being used as weapons. The Parties emphasize the need to respect and strengthen the BWC, including through the institutionalisation and adoption of a legally binding Protocol to the Convention that provides, inter alia, for an effective BWC verification mechanism, as well as for regular consultation and cooperation in addressing any issues related to implementation of the Convention.”

The CSTO Parliamentary Assembly is developing Recommendations on Legislative Support for Sanitary and Epidemiological (Medical and Biological) Security of the CSTO Member States.