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US intentionally blocks reinforcement of Biological Weapons Convention regime — UN envoy

Vasiliy Nebenzya noted that American representatives repeatedly refused to provide explanations regarding the nature and true goals of its biological activities in Ukraine and overall in the world

UNITED NATIONS, May 13. /TASS/. The US intentionally block attempts to reinforce the regime of Biological Weapons Convention, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasiliy Nebenzya said Friday, speaking at the UN Security Council meeting on US biological laboratories in Ukraine, initiated by Russia.

Nebenzya noted that American representatives repeatedly refused to provide explanations regarding the nature and true goals of its biological activities in Ukraine and overall in the world.

"During the session of the Preparatory committee of the 9th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva in early April, the US side once again failed to provide even a single coherent answer, except for a runaround that US biological activities are by definition peaceful and ‘beneficial’ for the international community," the diplomat underscored. "On April 6, during the Arria Formula meeting, independent journalists asked the US to provide explanations about, among other things, why do documents about American-Ukrainian cooperation on bio research contradict statements made by American officials. However, delegations of the US and the UK simply failed to show up for this meeting."

"During the abovementioned session of the Preparatory Committee, the US delegation once again rejected the proposal to create an efficient mechanism for verification of compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention, it refused to resume the work on a legally binding protocol for the Convention, which the US has been blocking since 2001," the envoy said. "American representatives also rejected our initiative to augment the Biological Weapons Convention trust measures with a form of report on military biological activities beyond the national territory. This means that the US intentionally blocks attempts to reinforce the biological weapons convention regime, which aims to make it possible to efficiently detect violations of the Convention," Russian envoy said.

According to the diplomat, all this are extremely alarming signals, especially considering that "US legislation allows military biological activities, and national legislation in this area is supreme to the international one in the US".

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