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Statement by Ms. Yoriko Kawaguchi, Minister for Foreign Affairs, on the Adoption of a Work Program at the Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)

November 22, 2002
Japanese

  1. On November 22, I sent a letter to Mr. Tibor Toth, Ambassador of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry and the President of the Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), stating that the Government of Japan highly evaluates the results of the Conference and that it will keep contributing to strengthening the BWC.

  2. At the Conference held from November 11 to 15 in Geneva, a work program up to 2005 was adopted by consensus. The Government of Japan welcomes the fact that in accordance with the program, the BWC signatories will hold meetings of State Parties for the coming three years to discuss five fields including the strengthening of national penal legislation and the security of pathogenic micro-organisms.

  3. The delegation of Japan, headed by Ambassador Kuniko Inoguchi, has been making strenuous efforts for the adoption of the work program, consulting with a number of delegations as well as the President. We are therefore very pleased that our efforts have contributed to the consensus adoption of the program. Japan intends to contribute actively to discussions in the five fields starting from next year, making use of its own expertise.
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