Own Correspondent
IN April 2021 the China Foreign Office demanded that the United States provide explanations about the experiments in biolabs in Ukraine.
Zhao Lijian, the deputy director of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs information department, stressed that the US is the only country, which still blocks the establishment of the verification mechanism under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC).
Beijing said that the US government should provide the international community with comprehensive information about the experiments that they are carrying out in the US military biological laboratories in Ukraine and the US military base Forth Detrick, located in Maryland.
“We hope that all parties concerned, including the United States, will adopt the same attitude of science-based cooperation as China, carry out origin-tracing cooperation with World Health Organisation, and invite WHO experts for origin-tracing study in their own countries,” Zhao said.
“I noticed that Russia recently expressed concern once again over the bio-military activities by the US on its own territory including at Fort Detrick and in other countries like Ukraine.
“This concern is actually shared by many other countries. As China has said repeatedly, relevant US activities are not transparent, safe or justified.”
“We may take Ukraine for example, which was mentioned by the Russian side.
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“According to openly available reports, the US has set up 16 bio-labs in Ukraine alone. Why does it need to build so many labs all over the world?” he asked.
“What activities has the US military been conducting in these labs and the base at Fort Detrick?
“Why does the US stand alone in opposing the establishment of a verification mechanism under the Biological Weapons Convention?
“Could it be that there are places within these labs and base where the US dare not allow in international verification?” he asked again.
An official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed that the US is the only country that still blocks the creation of a verification mechanism under the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction.
“We once again call on the US to adopt a responsible attitude, earnestly respond to international concerns, offer a full clarification on its bio-military activities at home and abroad, and stop obstructing the establishment of a verification mechanism under the Biological Weapons Convention,” Zhao said.
The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is located in Fort Detrick, Maryland. It is run by the Pentagon and conducts biomedical research, including on infectious diseases.
Earlier, a number of Ukrainian TV channels, including “1 + 1” and Newsone, reported that American military biological laboratories were operating in Ukraine, where experiments are carried out with pathogens of dangerous infectious diseases.
Verkhovna Rada /Ukrainian parliament/ deputies – the head of the political council of the Opposition Platform – For Life party Viktor Medvedchuk and Renat Kuzmin – reported that they had sent requests to Ukrainian government officials demanding a report on the work of 16 American biological laboratories in the country.
They recalled that in August 2005, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and the US Department of Defense signed an agreement on cooperation in preventing the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and knowledge that can be used to develop biological weapons.
The document provides for the collection and storage of all dangerous pathogens on Ukrainian territory in laboratories funded by Washington, and also obliges, at the request of the American side, to transfer copies of dangerous strains to the United States for further research.
Medvedchuk believes that the facilities in Ukraine that are subordinate to the Pentagon and carry out their assigned tasks are de facto US military bases, which is expressly prohibited by article 17 of the Ukrainian constitution.
The Ukrainian Opposition Platform – For Life party also expressed suspicions that laboratories could become a source of epidemics in the country, but they were rejected by the American Embassy in Kiev.
In addition, the party found that the US diplomatic mission was trying to hide information about the work of two centers engaged in the study of pathogens dangerous to humans in Ukraine.
