Important to adhere to convention on biological weapons: India

What is the News?

India has emphasized on following the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention(BTWC) at the UNSC meeting on Ukraine. 

The meeting came after a request from Russia who claimed that the US is involved in bioweapon manufacture in the war-torn country, something that the US has strongly dismissed. 

What is the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention(BTWC)?

The Biological Weapons Convention(BWC) was negotiated by the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland. It opened for signature in 1972 and entered into force in 1975. 

Purpose: The convention effectively prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons. 

– If a state possesses any agent, toxin, or delivery system for them, they have nine months from entry into force of the treaty to destroy their stockpiles, or divert them for peaceful use.

Membership: The Convention has reached almost universal membership, with 183 States Parties and four Signatory States. India is also a party to the convention.

– Ten states have neither signed nor ratified the BTWC: Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan, and Tuvalu.

Significance: It is the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning an entire category of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Drawbacks of the Convention: There is no implementation body of the BTWC, allowing for blatant violations as seen in the past. There is a review conference every five years to review the convention’s implementation and establish confidence-building measures.

Source: This post is based on the article “Important to adhere to convention on biological weapons: India” published in The Hindu on 11th Mar 2022.