Russia and UK to present joint document on emergency response to use of biological weapons

Russia and the United Kingdom have prepared a joint document on emergency response to use of biological weapons and will present their project in Geneva on Thursday, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department on Non-Proliferation and Weapons Control Vladimir Yermakov said in his speech at Wednesday's session of member-countries of the Biologocal Weapons Convention (BWC).

"Russia and the UK prepared a joint document on emergency response. We propose to consider several ideas on further promotion of the concept of mobile biomedical teams. Our document will be presented and discussed on Thursday, December 6," Yermakov said.

According to the diplomat, the prospects and demand for mobile biomedical teams is guaranteed from the point of view of strengthening the BWC. "This has particular significance in the context of creating effective mechanisms of implementing the Biological Weapons Convention," Yermakov said.

In his speech, the Russian diplomat also noted that Moscow considers as unacceptable the attempts to substitute the negotiations process in the BWC framework with parallel mechanisms, whose decisions will "represent only a product of some hidden bureaucratic activity in accordance with the principle 'we will decide everything for you, and you will just follow the rules'."

"We cannot allow fragmentation of inter-state processes and especially any attempts to substitute the negotiations between countries in the BWC framework with any alternative, any activities of international bureaucracy not subject to state governments' control," the diplomat stressed.