The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the US military-biological activities in the CIS countries
Taking into account the current situation, it is urgent to bring the American side to the negotiating table in order to raise in a bilateral format all the accumulated issues in connection with the military-biological activities of the United States in the post-Soviet space.
Aleksey Zaitsev, deputy official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated this at a briefing, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Commenting on the issue of US military-biological activities in the post-Soviet space, he noted that in connection with its activation, Russia has serious questions for Washington in the context of the implementation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
“Under the guise of providing assistance in the sanitary and epidemiological field, the Pentagon has put on stream the construction and modernization of microbiological laboratories in the republics of the former USSR. It is not possible to control the order and degree of involvement of such objects in closed research programs implemented through the US military department.
Strains of infectious disease pathogens obtained by American military biologists can be used in the future for purposes incompatible with the national security interests of Russia and other CIS countries.
In this regard, we consistently advocate strengthening the BTWC regime, a fundamental instrument of international law for comprehensively countering the threats and risks of the use of biological agents as weapons and promoting the development of international cooperation in the biological sphere for peaceful purposes.
In particular, we propose to include in the reporting annually submitted by the States Parties to the Convention within the framework of confidence-building measures, information on military-biological activities carried out abroad. However, our American colleagues are not willing to share such information,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
“In the interests of resolving issues related to US military-biological activities along the perimeter of the Russian borders, we consider it necessary to use the mechanism of Article V of the BTWC, according to which member states must consult with each other in resolving any issues regarding the purpose of the Convention or in connection with compliance with its provisions.
We call on the American side to sit down at the negotiating table and discuss in a bilateral format all the issues we have accumulated in connection with the military-biological activities of the United States,” Zaitsev added.
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