Political manipulations on issues of the COVID-19 pandemic and bioterrorism for opportunistic purposes are unacceptable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2020) Political manipulations on issues of the COVID-19 pandemic and bioterrorism for opportunistic purposes are unacceptable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.
Lavrov said that bioterrorism risks have been discussed for years in the international arena, but the COVID-19 crisis "naturally stimulates" more attention to the topic.
"I will add that we consider it absolutely unacceptable to manipulate the issues of the coronavirus or bioterrorism for opportunistic purposes, including provocative statements and destructive information campaigns aimed at increasing ideological and moral pressure on other states or international organizations, be it at the time of a pandemic or not," Lavrov said in the interview, which was published late on Tuesday.
The top Russian diplomat also said that in some regions of the world, terrorists try to take advantage of the pandemic and related difficulties to expand their influence, spread panic and recruit supporters, "primarily at the expense of those who are disappointed with the actions of the authorities during the crisis."�
The minister also mentioned the risks of terrorists obtaining chemical or biological weapons and said that Russia proposed a project on adopting a convention for combating acts of chemical and biological terrorism in March 2016 at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva.
"This initiative is intended to eliminate the gaps in international law that do not allow a prompt and effective response to a new threat of WMD [weapons of mass destruction] terrorism, which is becoming increasingly large-scale, systemic and cross-border in nature ... The Russia-proposed international convention is multidisciplinary in terms of the tasks it solves, it equally covers non-proliferation, disarmament, and anti-terrorism efforts. It is important that it establishes norms for direct actions, clearly criminalizing such unlawful acts," Lavrov explained.
The minister added that the interests of all countries would be respected in the convention, and its adoption would help strengthen the security of all states without exceptions.
Lavrov also said that the initiative could pave the way towards achieving more efficiency at the CD meetings. The next conference in Geneva is scheduled for early 2021.
