The future of the Ad Hoc Group (AHG) to continue negotiating a verification protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention was debated at the end of the first week of the Fifth Review Conference Friday.

Although the United States said it opposed the continuation of the AHG in any form (see GSN, Nov. 21), many other countries said that the AHG’s mandate remained in force and the strengthening of the treaty needed to take place in a multilateral setting.  Non-Aligned Movement countries were the most supportive of the AHG finishing work on the protocol, according to the Acronym Institute, a nongovernmental organization monitoring the conference. 

“It is clear that arriving at a consensus Final Document will be a big challenge,” (see GSN, Nov. 26) the Institute wrote in a release.

Non-Aligned Movement countries that supported the continuation of the AHG included China, Cuba, Iran, Libya and Pakistan, among others.  Although these countries six months ago resisted efforts to advance the AHG process, now they appeared to be the most eager to continue talks, according to the Institute.  Iran said it “still insisted on the validity of the [AHG’s] mandate” and announced its “readiness for continuing negotiation in a multilateral framework.”

China said it was disappointed that the “protocol that had great hope of conclusion” was now being subjected to a “threat of being scrapped.”  China, however, was “glad to note that an overwhelming majority of states parties still stand for maintaining the existing mechanism and mandate of the [AHG].”

Members of the European Union said they considered it “essential” that the AHG mandate remained in force.  The EU, however, stopped short of saying that the AHG should be reconvened.

The Rio Group, made up of Central and South American countries, said it hoped that the conference would “reiterate” the AHG’s mandate so negotiations on the protocol could be completed.  Only a multilateral format would provide “true reinforcement of the Convention,” the Group said (Acronym Institute release, Nov. 26).

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