The Fifth Review Conference of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention ended Friday (see GSN, Dec. 7) with no agreements after the United States moved to end future talks on a verification protocol to the treaty.

With only an hour left to go before the three-week conference came to an end, the United States introduced a proposal to the conference's final declaration that called for an end to the Ad Hoc Group, a committee of nations that had been working on a 210-page protocol outlining enforcement measures for the convention (see GSN, Nov. 27).  “The conference takes note of the work of the Ad Hoc Group and decides that the Ad Hoc Group and its mandate are hereby terminated,” the U.S. proposal read (Associated Press/New York Times, Dec. 9).

Following the U.S. motion, the chairman decided to suspend the conference and adjourn until November rather than bring the declaration up for a vote in its current state.

The United States had appeared Thursday to be accepting of vague wording in the final declaration that would have allowed the Ad Hoc Group's mandate to continue, according to the Financial Times (Frances Williams, Financial Times, Dec. 9).  Other states had reportedly presumed that, absent a measure terminating the Ad Hoc Group, it would continue to meet and discuss a mandatory inspections regime, which the United States opposes (UN Wire, Dec. 7).

Delegates React

The final U.S proposal shocked and angered many conference delegates, according to the Financial Times.  “The U.S. was willing to let the conference fail,” said Oliver Meier of the Verification Research, Training and Information Center.  “While U.S. citizens are dying from biological weapons, even the most modest proposals to strengthen the bioweapons ban were not acceptable to Washington” (Williams, Financial Times).

“We had a kind of agreement with the United States ... to be informed of their proposals, and that one took us totally by surprise, and that was totally different from what the [European Union] wants,” said Jean Lint, head of the EU delegation.  “So for us, this was totally unacceptable,” Lint said (Emma Kirby, BBC Online, Dec. 7).

“They treated us like dirt,” said another EU delegate.  “They are liars.  In decades of multilateral negotiations, we've never experienced this kind of insulting behavior” (Sunshine Project release, Dec. 7).

The European Union said in a statement that it remains committed to “multilateral” negotiations and that the Ad Hoc Group's 1994 mandate remains “completely valid” (Richard Waddington, Reuters/Yahoo! News, Dec. 7).

U.S. Answers Critics

The Bush administration believes the enforcement and verification protocol being designed by the Ad Hoc Group would do little to stop rogue nations, such as Iraq, from obtaining biological weapons, according to a U.S. State Department official.  “If the conference had continued, there was a danger that continued negotiations would have undermined our concerted efforts to strengthen the convention,” the official said.

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton agreed that creating a meaningful way to strengthen the convention is the most important thing.  “We believe compliance is essential for any arms control regime to be meaningful,” Bolton said.  He added that while the Bush administration is “disappointed” that an agreement could not be reached, it was better than “trying to paper over substantive disagreements with artful drafting.”

“I wish we could have continued talking, but it was obvious that we would not reach an agreement,” Bolton said.  “A cooling-off period will be a good thing” (Allen/Mufson, Washington Post, Dec. 8).

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