"The United States is in full compliance with its obligations under the
Convention. The United States unilaterally renounced biological weapons (BW) in
1969 and completed the elimination of its BW program prior to entry into force of
the BWC, as reported in Form F of the Confidence-Building Measures. All the
biological-related activities of the United States are for peaceful purposes and fully
consistent with its obligations under the Convention. This includes the capacitybuilding
programs questioned by the Russian Federation.
For more than 30 years, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has
implemented the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program, initially created to
consolidate, secure, and eliminate weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-related
materials and infrastructure in states of the former Soviet Union, including the
Russian Federation. Today, the DoD CTR Program helps more than 30 partner
nations to improve their ability to detect, diagnose, and report infectious disease
outbreaks caused by human and animal pathogens and to improve biosafety and
biosecurity at facilities that handle those pathogens. The DoD CTR Program
provides assistance and capabilities to partners through activities such as
workforce development, equipment upgrades, and physical infrastructure
projects. CTR-supported laboratories have often proved instrumental in providing
critical support during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as diagnostic testing and
analyzing of samples, and have led the way in building domestic capacity for
enhanced disease monitoring, public and animal health initiatives, and the training
of front-line biosecurity experts.
The Russian Federation itself was the foundational partner of the DoD CTR
Program. Pursuant to the 1992 Agreement Between the United States of America
and the Russian Federation Concerning the Safe and Secure Transportation,
Storage and Destruction of Weapons and the Prevention of Weapons Proliferation,
as amended and extended, the Russian Federation engaged in cooperative activities
with the DoD CTR Program for 21 years. These activities included collaborative
biological research (such as biosurveillance studies on zoonotic infectious
diseases) and laboratory biosafety and biosecurity upgrades. Like those
cooperative efforts with the Russian Federation, U.S. cooperation with Ukraine and
other countries today is fully consistent with the BWC and is one of the many ways
in which the United States fulfills its obligations under the international
cooperation and assistance provisions of the Convention (Article X).
In advance of the consultative meeting, the United States is providing this
written response to the June 13 Aide Memoire of the Russian Federation. At the
consultative meeting, U.S. and Ukrainian technical experts will present a more
detailed briefing to jointly respond to and rebut Russia’s unfounded assertions."
Opps.
