CSTO PA Recommendations on Medical and Biological Security Are Being Developed by Experts from all EAEU Countries

The 2nd Eurasian Economic Forum is taking place in Moscow on May 24–25. More than 2,700 representatives of government agencies, the business community, international organizations and the media from 54 states are attending the Forum’s business track. The Forum is being held as part of the Russian Federation’s EAEU presidency in 2023. Its goal is to improve cooperation ties in the Eurasian space.

The Forum session Lessons from the Pandemic: Looking to the Future presented the CSTO PA’s legislative experience, in particular the Assembly’s Recommendations in the field of medical and biological security, which experts from all EAEU countries were involved in developing. According to Sergei Pospelov, Executive Secretary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the draft Recommendations are currently going through the standard approval procedures and it is highly likely that they will be published this autumn.

“It is encouraging that today we are already witnessing the practical implementation of the relevant decisions of the leaders of our countries and the CSTO CSSC, including the establishment of a body within the Organization that will deal substantially and professionally with these urgent issues of collective and national security. It is the Coordinating Council of the Authorized Bodies of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Member States on Biological Security established by the CSTO CSC decision of December 15, 2022,” Mr Pospelov said.

The document, drafted by the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, says: “Ensuring biosecurity is one of the fundamental components of the overall security system ensuring stable development of states. At present, there is a steady tendency in the world towards an increasing number of biological threats, which may lead to complications in the sanitary and epidemiological situation and public health emergencies in the territory of the CSTO Member States.”

“It is extremely important for us now to work with medical and biological security professionals at the stage of drafting a model legislative act, because after its adoption by the Assembly it will be implemented in the national legal systems,” Mr Pospelov stressed.

The session also focused on the interaction of the Eurasian Economic Union states in counteracting the spread of diseases posing a threat to the environment, the EAEU’s experience in overcoming pandemic threats, the lessons of the joint fight against COVID-19, the impact of the pandemic on global and regional integration processes, a science-based perspective, as well as the features of the functioning of common markets for medicines and medical devices in modern conditions.