The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism in collaboration with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) successfully conducted a two day Seminar on Disarmament for Sri Lanka Foreign Service Officers on 25 and 26 April, 2025 at the Ministry. Over 40 officers based in Colombo attended the workshop physically while over 60 officers attached to Sri Lanka Missions abroad followed the Seminar virtually.
Madam President
Excellencies
Distinguished delegates
First, let me congratulate Her Excellency ICHIKAWA Tomiko, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Japan on assuming the Presidency of the Conference on Disarmament. I wish to assure you of my country’s fullest support and cooperation for the success of the CD. I also sincerely thank Italy; the First President to the CD this year for the leadership in adopting the programme of work and setting the ground for this year’s work. Let me reiterate the support of Sri Lanka to Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia and Mexico; the incoming presidents for 2025 and wish them strength to unlock the deadlock the CD has been in for over two decades and resume its substantive work.
Mr. Chair,
Sri Lanka appreciates your efforts in presenting an ambitious road map together with a proposal to convene a Special Conference in 2025, with the earnest hope of bringing the two years of discussions at this Working Group towards a tangible outcome.
Today, we have come to a point where we need to deliver on what we have been deliberating over the years or at least strive to see how far we can go and reshape our path towards a solid outcome. In that sense, we welcome the proposal by the Chair and look forward to constructively engaging with all States Parties to decide our way forward based on consensus while recognizing the concerns of all Members.
Mr. Chair
We understand the proposed ‘Science & Technology Review Mechanism’ is an important element of the proposed roadmap as well as Convention and we value the efforts of Friends of Chair for driving the mandate of the Working Group throughout the past year, particularly crafting the recommendation on Science & Technology Review Mechanism in an inclusive approach.
Science & Technology can be considered as one of the vital elements related to the Biological Weapons Convention. As we are aware, advances in biological science and bio-technology could pose risks and threats which could lead to potential breaches of the Convention while the same can be of benefit to fight against such risks by developing vaccines and medicines. It is important to be mindful of this dual-use nature of life sciences which bring both advancements and challenges to the implementation of the Convention when we deliberate on the elements of the Science & Technology Review Mechanism. As we consider the proposed Science & Technology Review Mechanism after five decades of signing the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972, the rapid evolution of bioscience and biotechnology and emerging challenges, as well as associated risks posed by advancement of wide range of sciences and technologies in the world need to be adequately captured in this mechanism.
While firmly believing that the proposed mechanism should be an integral part of strengthening the Convention, Sri Lanka wishes to make the following observations;
- The States Parties may strive to minimize the complexity of the proposed Science & Technology Mechanism with a view to make it more pragmatic and sustainable.
- This Advisory Mechanism should ensure equal access to all States Parties to receive specific advice on scientific and technological developments relevant to the Convention, exchange of relevant information on latest scientific developments regardless of scientific or technical capabilities, and economic status of the States.
- The proposed review group, reporting committee and temporary groups under this Advisory Mechanism should operate in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner and with a balanced approach.
- While noting that the Science and Technology Reporting Committee of up to 25 members drawing from the Science and Technology Review Group will serve in their individual expert capacities, we underline that a clear selection criterion is vital. The level of expertise and experience should be clear and should proportionately accommodate experts from developing countries. It is important to reflect geographical and gender balance in the Reporting Committee as recommended in the non-paper.
- The number of members of the Reporting Committee should be flexible to accommodate a reasonable number of experts depending on the number of nominations received by the states and the necessity of having relevant experts in the Committee while striking the balance between numbers and geographical and gender representation.
- Clearly pre-defined selection criteria for standing bodies of Advisory Mechanism will be crucial to avoid any conflict of interest and the experts to the Advisory Mechanism should be free from influence of the nominating government and vital to ensure the independence and transparency of their work.
- We propose setting up ethical standards to be followed by the scientists and experts in serving in the standing bodies of this Mechanism
- This Mechanism needs to be improved to hear the voices of developing and least developed countries even in the event such countries do not have capacity to nominate experts in the relevant field.
- Given the rapid development in science and technology, we perceive the importance of nominating experts from diversified fields of related sciences such as biology, biotechnology, microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, biosecurity, immunology, epidemiology etc. as well as in a multidisciplinary approach including in the field of technologies related to military development, security, artificial intelligence (AI) etc.
Mr. Chair,
In view of the road map and the proposal that you have put forwarded as a basis for our discussions at this Working Group, we wish to emphasize that both the International Cooperation and Assistance (ICA) mechanism and the Science & Technology mechanism should be independent, transparent and sustainable and their parallel progress will be vital to reach the desired outcomes.
We understand that the pragmatic and effective operation of these two mechanisms will be important in the universal implementation of the BWC.
Mr. Chair
Sri Lanka attaches great importance in addressing the needs of developing and least developed countries through these mechanisms and we are committed to extend our fullest cooperation in strengthening the Biological Weapons Conventions in a realistic manner while considering the concerns of all States Parties in a consensual approach.
Thank you
Mr. Chair,
As this is the first time that my delegation is taking the floor, I take this opportunity to congratulate you for assuming the role of the Chairperson of this Working Group. We are confident of your leadership to steer the work of the Working Group on strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). Please be assured of the fullest support and cooperation of Sri Lanka for the success of this session and to reach the desired outcome of the Working Group.
We thank the Friends of Chair on International Cooperation and Assistance (ICA) for the comprehensive work carried out to craft the ICA mechanism and leading the informal consultations for sharing views to enrich the proposed structure of the ICA mechanism.
As depicted in the Chair’s Roadmap, in the overall picture, it is pertinent to understand the importance of correlation between all proposed mechanisms under the Convention for its implementation at an optimal level.
Mr. Chair,
It may be noted that Article X of the Convention which calls for the ‘fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the use of bacteriological (biological) agents and toxins for peaceful purposes’ is vital and strengthens the other pillars of the Convention such as Science and Technology Mechanism, Assistance Response and Preparedness as well as Compliance and Verification.
Mr. Chair,
Sri Lanka welcomes the proposed ICA Programme and the Guiding Principles together with the proposed International Cooperation and Assistance Fund (ICA Fund) for the financing of the ICA Programme and wishes to make the following observations;
- The ICA Steering Committee which oversees the ICA Programme and the ICA Fund should be open to all State Parties and as proposed in the Terms of Reference, the composition should reflect a broad and proportional geographical distribution and gender balance.
- Selection criteria to the Steering Committee should be very clear and transparent and the Steering Committee should operate in a transparent manner.
- We also believe that the Terms of Reference (ToR) should be flexible to adjust to the operational aspects of the Steering Committee such as number of days and frequency of the meetings without leading to any stalemate on procedural issues
- National ownership of any project or initiative under the ICA Mechanism is critical.
- Enhancing global, regional and national capacities to respond to biological threats is equally important as the spread of such a threat or biological risk across borders causing devastation to the entire world can go beyond control. Therefore, Sri Lanka attaches great importance to effective integration of developing and least developed countries (LDC) into the proposed ICA Mechanism. Improving this mechanism in a pragmatic way to identify the specific needs for developing countries and to prioritize the applications and requests of developing countries for capacity building, technical, scientific assistance and resources etc. will be vital in implementing the Convention effectively and globally.
- Enhancing partnerships between developed and developing countries to facilitate knowledge, technological and resource transfer and sharing of best practices will be beneficial in this direction. Fostering regional cooperation and networking will enable developing and least developed countries (LDC) to collaborate effectively to address the issues of biological threats.
- Gathering continuous feedback from developing countries on their challenges in national implementation of the Convention as well as pre and post evaluation of projects, assistance provided under the ICA mechanism is important to shape future cooperation strategies.
- Implementing robust monitoring systems and post evaluation mechanisms on the effectiveness of projects initiated by ICA Mechanism in any country and ensuring their sustainability is important to fight against biological threats worldwide at any time under any circumstance, in the future.
- We should not forget the dual use of biological research and life sciences. Therefore, as underlined in Article X of the Convention, ICA Mechanism should also focus on promoting and assisting the peaceful use of bio-technologies in an ethical and responsible manner.
- Towards this end, it is important to identify complementarities and synergies of the activities by other relevant international and regional organizations with focus on bio-safety and bio-security for necessary collaboration while being mindful of avoiding duplication of the initiatives under this Convention.
Mr. Chair,
Sri Lanka is committed to working with all States in enhancing its capabilities to respond to biological threats as well as to promote peaceful use of bio-technologies. We remain committed toward strengthening the BWC and its full implementation at national, regional and global level. We firmly believe that comprehensive and pragmatic International Cooperation and Assistance Mechanism will be one of the key pillars in achieving this objective.
Thank you
2024 Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW)
Agenda Item 7 – General Exchange of Views
14 November 2024
Mr. President,
Let me begin by congratulating you on the assumption of the Presidency of the 2024 Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Please be assured of the fullest support and cooperation of the delegation of Sri Lanka for arriving at the desired outcome of this important forum.
- Statement by Her Excellency Himalee Arunatilaka, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva at the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) on 10 September 2024
- Statement by Sri Lanka at the Second session of the 2024 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Emerging Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS), 26-30 August 2024 - Agenda Item 5
- Sri Lanka co-hosted a Side Event during the 4th Session of the Working Group on Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), 22 August 2024