"Rossiyskaya Gazeta” newspaper: Russia proposed to create a council on biological security within the CSTO

The Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Rashid Nurgaliyev said that the Russian Federation had initiated the creation of the Coordinating Council of authorized bodies of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states on biological security.

"The pandemic has strengthened cooperation among CSTO countries in countering biological threats. Thus, at Russia's initiative, it was proposed to form a Coordinating Council of authorized bodies of CSTO member states on issues of biological security, placed under the responsibility of the Committee of Secretaries of CSTO Security Councils," he noted in an interview with  “Rossiyskaya gazeta” newspaper  on Wednesday, April 28.

It is assumed that this body will develop joint practical measures to prevent threats to national, regional and international security associated with exposure to biological hazards.

"It is important for us to jointly analyze the situation with biothreats, exchange experience, and plan joint actions in this area. In addition, there is a long overdue need to improve the legal framework for cooperation on biological security," the Deputy Secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council added.

Nurgaliyev specified that in 2020 the secretaries of the Security Councils met in the remote format. In addition, changes had to be made to the regular work due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the format of the meetings.

"Taking into account the pandemic, the active stages of the CSTO regional anti-drug operation Channel conditionally named “Channel-Granit Bastion” and “Channel-Nevsky Shield” planned for 2020 will take place in 2021," he said.

The Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Russia also said that due to quarantine measures, the joint operation "Illegal-2020" was postponed for 2021. He recalled that this complex was designed to work out mechanisms of interaction between law enforcement agencies and special services in the fight against illegal migration.

Earlier in June 2020, Renat Kuzmin, the Verkhovna Rada deputy from “The Opposition Platform - For Life” party, accused the Ukrainian authorities of hiding the truth about US laboratories in Ukraine.

A month later, deputes from the “The Opposition Platform - For Life” party demanded that the Security Service of Ukraine to initiate a criminal case because of the actions of American bacteriological laboratories in the country.

In turn, on April 7, 2021, the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolay Patrushev said, that Russia had good reason to believe that biological weapons were being developed in the US-controlled biolaboratories. According to his data, these laboratories mostly appear near the borders of Russia and China.

One day later, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that the U.S. government  had to provide the international community with information about the experiments being conducted in the U.S. military bio-laboratories in Ukraine and at Fort Detrick.

The Collective Security Treaty was signed on May 15, 1992, in Tashkent, the Republic of Uzbekistan, among the heads of the six of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) member states. They include the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan. In September 1993, the Republic of Azerbaijan joined the CSTO, and in December of that year the Republic of Georgia and the Republic of Belarus became its members. The treaty came into force on April 20, 1994.

It aims to ensure the security of nations. The treaty also seeks to strengthen the protection of states and the whole world.