US Mission Geneva

The conference ended on a high note by endorsing a multinational work program for the next five years that promises to revitalize global efforts to reduce biological threats and advance objectives set forth in the President’s National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats.

In an age when people and diseases cross borders with growing ease, bioweapons are a transnational threat, and the United States is taking steps to protect against them with transnational action. Along the margins of the BWC Review Conference, the U.S. Delegation hosted three events that provided an overview of the U.S. approach to several critical BWC areas.

On December 8, 2011, the U.S. Delegation to the 7th Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Review Conference (BWC RevCon) hosted a side event on the United States Biodefense Program open to all conference participants

President Obama has made it a top goal of his Administration to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction, because we view the risk of a bioweapons attack as both a serious national security challenge and a foreign policy priority.

As you know, this Administration has placed a premium on arms control and nonproliferation. The Biological Weapons and Toxin Convention – is one of the three pillars of the global WMD regime. It is the first treaty to ban an entire class of weapons, that is, biological and toxin weapons, entered into force in 1975.

Secretary of State Clinton wiill deliver the U.S. National Statement at the 7th Biological Weapons Review Conference (BWC RevCon) in Geneva. The BWC RevCon, held once every five years, plays a critical role in reviewing the treaty and charting next steps. Formed in 1975, the BWC is the premier international forum that addresses biological threats, and is evolving to meet changing world needs.

As we go to the Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference in December in Geneva, our steps should line up with the aims of President Obama’s National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats which was announced at the BWC two years ago. This strategy has a clear, overarching goal … to protect against the misuse of science to develop or use biological agents to cause harm.

Improving capacities to detect, report and respond to infectious diseases quickly and accurately lies at the heart of the global community’s ability to address all infectious disease threats.

The risk of state development and possession of biological weapons, which drove the negotiation of the BWC nearly forty years ago, still exists today.