MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. Russia is calling on the US for greater transparency in adhering to the provisions of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev wrote in his article published in the Russia in Global Affairs journal.
According to him, Moscow remains committed to the 1972 Convention banning bioweapons, and it believes that currently this agreement "needs to be thoroughly reviewed to fully reflect modern realities." At the same time, Medvedev noted that it is impossible to verify the implementation of the Convention by Washington because in 2001 the United States refused to adopt the relevant protocol to this document and ceased allowing inspections on its soil.
"Today, Russia is calling for full compliance with the Convention, thus reminding the international community that using biological weapons is unacceptable. I hope Washington will hear what our country has to say about it and will start a more open and engaged dialogue with the states parties to the Convention," wrote the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia.
According to him, the transparency is needed to avoid suspicions when another infectious outbreak starts, which, according to him, "applies to research underway in certain labs, including the ones that the United States has deployed all over the planet."
"Their activities should not cause any suspicion, otherwise with a new outbreak of any infectious disease (no one doubts that more such outbreaks are coming) there will be endless mutual complaints, conspiracy theories and cross-sanctions which will pave the way to a direct conflict," Medvedev says.
"Reasonable transparency and agreed-upon verification are needed here," the official believes, adding that otherwise, "each new virus will be presented as a biological weapon," which risks to create "unheard-of international tensions, which can easily escalate into a full-fledged hot conflict, rather than the so-called ‘hybrid’ war."
Medvedev is confident that "the international cooperation principles in biological research will need to be revised after the pandemic." In his opinion, this work can be done both at the UN, including World Health Organization (WHO) and using regional venues, such as the CSTO and the SCO.
"The off-limits research will not go anywhere and will continue to ensure national security and corporate interests. However, we need protocols agreed upon by countries as to the procedure to be used in the event of a pandemic threat, and what the international community partners and the WHO should be notified about. In that case, there will be no endless squabbling over who was zero patient, who hid what, and what was done and what wasn’t," Medvedev explained.