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BRICS countries note importance of Bioweapons Convention compliance and strengthening

The statement, adopted after the ministerial video conference that took place Friday, notes that efforts to resolve issues, connected to implementation of agreements, "must take place within the BWC framework"

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Foreign Ministers of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) pointed at the key role of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (commonly shortened to BWC) in their joint statement, published on the Russian Foreign Ministry website.

"The Ministers underscored the foremost importance of compliance and strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention, including the Convention Protocol, which outlines an efficient verification mechanism. They confirmed that the BWC is a key instrument on biological and toxin weapons," the statement says. "Its functions, regarding the UN Security Council in particular, should not be duplicated by other mechanisms."

The statement, adopted after the ministerial video conference that took place Friday, notes that efforts to resolve issues, connected to implementation of agreements, "must take place within the BWC framework."

The top diplomats of the fiver countries "reiterated their support to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and called on the BWC signatory states to preserve its integrity and to conduct a constructive dialogue to restore the spirit of consensus within the OPCW."

Besides, the Ministers "underscored the need to launch multilateral negotiations on an international convention on fighting the acts of chemical and biological terrorism within the UN Convention on Disarmament in a bid to remove the treat of chemical and biological terrorism.".

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