U.N. Security Council discusses U.S.-Russian confrontation over Ukraine’s biosecurity
2022-03-19 14:52:54Source: China News Network
China News Service, March 19. According to the United Nations website, following the meeting on March 11, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting again at the request of Russia on the 18th local time to discuss the alleged existence of materials in Ukraine that can be used for biological weapons.
The Russian delegation released a new document to the Security Council supporting the “biological weapons” claim. Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Nebenja, told the Security Council that his delegation had new evidence that the United States and Ukraine had agreed to conduct biological weapons research on Ukrainian soil as early as 2005.
Nebenja said he had distributed evidence of the agreement to the Security Council, including signed evidence of direct U.S. funding to Ukraine in the amount of $32 million.
He said that while the United States continued to insist that the country was not involved in any biological laboratory activities in Ukraine, “it turned out not to be the case”. He claimed that “Ukrainian authorities in fact allowed the United States to conduct dangerous experiments in exchange for free participation in international conferences.”
In response to the allegations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said that “there is no such laboratory, not near the Russian border, not anywhere”. Instead, Ukraine has several public health facilities, supported by the United States, the World Health Organization, and other government and international agencies.
In response to the new allegations by the Russian Federation, Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN head of disarmament affairs, reiterated that the UN was not aware of any biological weapons programme in Ukraine and that the evidence it had showed to the contrary.
Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said at the meeting that China was once a victim of biological and chemical weapons. China believes that any information and clues of biological military activities should arouse the high concern and attention of the international community, so as to avoid irreparable harm. In this regard, relevant parties should take a responsible attitude. The Russian side further released the newly discovered relevant documents. Relevant parties should respond to existing doubts and make timely and comprehensive clarifications to dispel the doubts of the international community. This is not an excessive requirement, and there should be no double standard on this issue.