COVID-19: India follows US to remind the world a 1975 treaty against bio weapons

New Delhi refrains from lending credence to conspiracy theories doing the rounds in the US, accusing China of developing coronavirus as a biological weapon

With conspiracy theories blaming China for the COVID-19 pandemic doing the rounds, India has followed the United States to remind the world about the commitments made by the 183 nations to prohibit the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons.

A day after the 45th anniversary of the Biological Weapons Convention, India on Friday called upon all the nations, which had signed the treaty, to “recommit themselves” to its “full and effective implementation” and “full compliance” with it, “in letter and spirit”.

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) – officially known as “Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction” – entered into force on March 26, 1975 and 183 nations, including India, China and the United States, are at present parties to it.

“The global economic and social implications of the pandemic, caused by (the) COVID-19, have underlined the need for international cooperation, including institutional strengthening of the World Health Organization,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the Government of India stated in a press-release issued in New Delhi on Friday. “In addition,” it said, “they have highlighted the need for strengthening cooperation amongst the States Parties to the BWC aimed at full and effective implementation of the convention in all its aspects”.

New Delhi issued the statement just a day after a senior US diplomat referred to the COVID-19 pandemic to underline the importance of adhering to the BWC.

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“Today, we observe the 45th anniversary of the #BiologicalWeaponsConvention and reaffirm the importance of #BWC Parties’ commitments to preventing biological weapons. The #COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of #BWC Parties’ commitments to reducing all biological risks,” tweeted Chris Ford, Assistant Secretary in charge of the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation in the US State Department.

India, however, refrained from lending credence to the conspiracy theories, which are doing the round in the United States, insinuating that China had developed the new coronavirus, now known as the COVID-19 virus, at a laboratory as part of its secret biological warfare programme and that the outbreak had been caused by a leak.

The COVID-19 virus was previously unknown before the outbreak began at Wuhan in China in December 2019. The virus has now caused a pandemic around the world, infecting at least 509,164 people and killing at least 23335 people, according to the latest update by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Over 129,000 people have recovered from the disease though.

A section of the US media has been peddling the conspiracy theories, while the others have been dismissing them, citing lack of scientific evidence. Tom Cotton, a Republican Senator of the US, recently insinuated that the COVID-19 virus had originated in a high-security biochemical lab in Wuhan in China. Stephen K Bannon, a former aide of the US President Donald Trump, too gave a boost to the conspiracy theories.

The US Government has not yet officially accused China of intentionally developing the COVID-19 as a biological weapon, but senior officials of the Trump Administration has been blaming the communist country for alleged failure to detect and contain the virus and to warn the rest of the international community about it early enough.

Beijing dismissed the allegations and strongly countered attempt by Trump and other US Government officials to brand the COVID-19 as a “Chinese Virus”.

When External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had talked over phone on Tuesday, Beijing sought New Delhi’s support to counter the US attempts to stigmatize China for the COVID-19 virus and to lay the blame on its door for the pandemic.

New Delhi on Friday reiterated the “high importance” that it had always attached to the BWC, which, according to it, was the first global and non-discriminatory disarmament convention that prohibited "an entire category of weapons of mass destruction". “We give a high priority to its (BWC's) universalisation and full and effective implementation by all states parties to it,” the MEA said in a press-release issued on the 45th anniversary of the convention.

The 9th Review Conference of the BWC is scheduled to take place in 2021.

India reiterated its call for the BWC’s institutional strengthening, including “negotiation of a comprehensive and legally binding protocol, providing for an effective, universal and non-discriminatory verification mechanism to strengthen the implementation of the convention by State Parties, ensuring full compliance and deterring non-compliance with it”.

New Delhi stated that the BWC “must respond effectively to the challenges posed by the new and emerging scientific and technological developments”, which were relevant to the treaty. “India has also been highlighting the dangers from the possible use, in future, of microorganisms as biological weapons by terrorists through its annual Resolution at the UN General Assembly, titled ‘Measures to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction’, which has been adopted, annually since 2002, by consensus,” the MEA stated.