GENEVA, March 7. /TASS/. Russia suggests the Conference on Disarmament focus on pre-negotiations work concerning drafting the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Chemical and Biological Terrorism, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Geneva office and other Geneva-based international organizations Alexei Borodavkin told TASS on Tuesday.
"Today, the Russian delegation to the Conference on Disarmament circulated a draft program of this forum," he said, adding that the first part of the draft concerns "the launch of pre-negotiations work on the Russian initiative of drafting an international convention for the suppression of acts of chemical and biological terrorism."
"It is a very important and topical issue that will make it possible to give an impetus to anti-terrorism efforts, bearing in mind growing threats of terrorists’ use of weapons of mass destruction," Borodavkin noted.
The terrorist group Islamic State (outlawed in Russia) "has possibilities to manufacture chemical weapons and has already used it near Mosul, according to media reports," he said.
"Immediate elaborate of the convention initiated by Russia will be a real contribution to the consolidation of international efforts against terrorism" and will help strengthen non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," he said, adding that it will also give a fresh impetus to the Conference on Disarmament which has been "in stagnation for more than 20 years."
The second part of the Russia-initiated draft concerns nuclear disarmament. "As a manner of fact however, it is only about a discussion mandate," the Russian diplomat noted. Nuclear disarmament, he went on to say, depends on many factors, including such as "the necessity to reach an agreement on preventing arms race in outer space." "It is joint initiative of Russia and China and it is geared to work out an agreement on preventing arms deployment in outer space," he added.
"I would like to stress that the Russian initiative on the forum’s program enjoys wide support at the Conference. We hope our colleagues will receive corresponding instructions from their capitals and we will finally make this long-awaited breakthrough in the forum’s work," Borodavkin stressed.
The draft program is expected to be submitted for consideration next week.