CSTO PA adopts statement against biological, toxin weapons

MINSK, 5 December (BelTA) - The CSTO Parliamentary Assembly adopted a statement on the inadmissibility of the development of biological and toxin weapons, BelTA learned from the CSTO PA.

"We, the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, are glad to note that the BTWC (Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction of 10 April 1972) has begun to play a bigger role against the background of modern challenges in the field of biological security, including the possibility of using advances in the field of biotechnology for non-peaceful purposes," the statement says.

The MPs welcomed the work within the framework of the initiative to set up an International Agency for Biological Safety (IABS) based on the convention and reporting to the UN Security Council that would ensure compliance with the obligations under the convention.

The CSTO PA calls for "strict observance of the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare of 1925 and withdrawal of reservations to it and expressed concern over the preservation in the national legislation of the norms allowing work in the field of biological weapons prohibited by the BTWC."

"We urge to use the platforms of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and other international parliamentary organizations to promote the implementation of the BTWC. We reaffirm our commitment to a world free of biological weapons, and proceed from the fact that the CSTO countries will unite efforts in coordinating work on the unconditional implementation of the convention and strengthening the legislative framework in this area," the statement says.