The UAE participated in a meeting of member countries of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction.
GENEVA, (Pakistan Point News - 09th Dec, 2019) The UAE participated in a meeting of member countries of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction.
The UAE delegation was headed by Obaid Salem Al Zaabi, UAE Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva and Other International Organisations in Switzerland, and included representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Health and Prevention, and the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre.
During the meeting, Al Zaabi delivered a speech stressing the UAE’s keenness to cooperate with the Convention’s support unit while calling upon its member states to promote confidence-building measures.
He also explained the UAE’s work to improve its biological security systems, noting that the country established in 2012 the National Committee for Biosecurity and drafted and implemented a national biological security strategy.
Al Zaabi affirmed that the strategy’s goals and sub-initiatives support the country’s efforts to strengthen biological security, stressing that the UAE is working with full transparency to facilitate the exchange of relevant scientific equipment, materials, and information according to Article No. 10 of the Convention.
The UAE has established and operates a Biosafety Level 3 laboratory to research infectious diseases in line with best practices in the field of biological security, he added.
Al Zaabi highlighted that the UAE drafted the National Action Plan for Health Security 2019-2023 in cooperation with the World Health Organisation and other relevant national authorities, and in February 2019, a workshop was held with the participation of the WHO and relevant partners, including various government authorities.
