US Mission Geneva

The Obama administration is working to make the 1975 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) universal by encouraging countries that have not joined the treaty to appreciate its benefits, not only in preventing acquisition and use of biological weapons, but also in promoting international cooperation to prevent and mitigate disease, spread deliberately or otherwise.

In a joint statement, President Obama and Brazilian President Rousseff reaffirmed both countries’ commitments on disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation and underscored the need to bring the CTBT into force, start negotiations on a FMCT and achieve a successful Biological Weapons Review in December 2011.

We, the G8 Foreign Ministers, affirm our unconditional support to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), which is both the first multilateral instrument banning an entire category of weapons of mass destruction and the cornerstone of international efforts to prohibit biological and toxin weapons.

By all accounts, 2010 was a watershed year for nuclear arms control. In word and deed, the United States followed through on its commitment to disarmament. The U.S. Nuclear Posture Review concluded last April, fundamentally recalibrated the role of nuclear weapons in our strategic doctrine and changed U.S. declaratory policy on use of nonnuclear weapons.

Ambassador Kennedy: “A sense of commitment, a sense of urgency shared by the international community. It’s not secret, of course, that one nation who happens to be a longstanding ally and friend of the United States does not share that commitment to begin negotiations of an FMCT. We continue a dialogue with all of our partners. But in terms of Geneva and what lies ahead we will support efforts to get to an agreed program of work and agenda to start off the year.

The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), which took effect in 1975, originally was designed to ban the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons by nation states.

The Annual Meeting of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention began Monday in Geneva and is scheduled to conclude on Friday, December 10, 2010. Ambassador Laura Kennedy, the United States Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, leads the U.S. delegation as the U.S. Special Representative for Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Issues.

Parties to the BWC have committed to assist one another in the event of a biological weapons attack. This commitment is complemented by the commitments under the World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations to collaborate in the detection, assessment of, and response to public health emergencies of international concern, because a biological weapons attack may not always be immediately recognized as a deliberate event.

Laura Kennedy, the United States Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, has been named as the U.S. Special Representative for Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) Issues. Amb. Kennedy will serve in these two capacities concurrently, and as BWC Special Representative will report to the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN), the Department of State’s lead bureau on BWC issues.