Parties to Biological Treaty Meet This Week

Biological Weapons Convention member nations are meeting this week in Geneva to prepare for the sixth treaty review conference (see GSN, March 15).

The meeting is scheduled from Wednesday to Friday, and is being chaired by Masood Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Khan is expected to be nominated as the president of the review conference, which is scheduled for late November. 

Diplomats at this week’s meeting are expected to prepare the agenda for the review conference along with other organizational and financial matters, according to a U.N. press release.

The November meeting will be the first formal review since 2002. It gives signatories the opportunity to reconfirm their opposition to biological weapons and to consider any problems with treaty operations, the release states.

The conference is expected to include: a review of the treaty’s operation; discussion of new technological development; consideration of the work of the intersessional meetings from 2002 to 2005; and decisions on any actions needed to strengthen the convention (United Nations release, April 24).

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