On 10 – 14 August 2015 in Geneva the annual Meeting of Experts of States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) takes place.

Representatives of States Parties to the Convention, relevant international institutions and NGOs attend the event.

Participants are discussing ways to further strengthen the BWC, deepen international cooperation, including in the context of providing technical assistance to States Parties to the Convention to identify and combat threats of pandemic nature and use the results of biological research for peaceful purposes.

The delegation of Ukraine in its presentation during the Meeting stressed the important role played by the BWC in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, called for comprehensive strengthening of the Convention’s regime, including through its further universalization, improving the confidence-building mechanism, strengthening monitoring and evaluation of research and biotechnology, enhanced international collaboration. It was also emphasized on the aggressive actions of Russia which significantly deteriorated our country's biosecurity and biosafety system, in particular due to the illegal occupation and annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which led to the loss of control over Ukrainian anti-plague station of the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine and the Crimean republican diagnostic laboratory.