MINSK, 26 July (BelTA) – The member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States will advance cooperation in biological security, BelTA learned from the press service of the CIS Executive Committee.
The CIS is drafting statements of the CIS heads of state on cooperation in ensuring biological security and a joint statement of the CIS foreign ministers on reinforcing the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
On 25 July, the draft documents were considered by groups of experts from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and the CIS Executive Committee. The documents are designed to help ensure sanitary and epidemiological safety of the population, protect people's health from harmful biological factors, and keep track of biological risks, which is among the CIS priorities.
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction was approved by the UN General Assembly on 26 March 1975. The Convention is of unlimited duration and is an important element of the international security system. Participants to the Convention state that they are determined to act with a view to achieving effective progress towards general and complete disarmament, including the prohibition and elimination of all types of weapons of mass destruction.
