New Delhi: The threat of biological weapons and bioterrorism is no longer theoretical, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Monday and urged the international community to modernise global biosecurity frameworks under the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).
“Misuse by non-state actors is no longer a distant possibility. Bioterrorism is a serious concern that the international community has to be adequately prepared for,” he said while addressing a two-day conference on ’50 years of the Biological Weapons Convention: Strengthening Biosecurity for the Global South’.
Jaishankar pointed to critical structural inadequacies within the 50-year-old convention, and noted that the BWC currently has “no compliance system, no permanent technical body and no mechanism to track new scientific developments.”
“These gaps must be bridged in order to strengthen confidence,” he said.
India backs international cooperation for peaceful biological research and exchange of materials and technology, he said while reiterating India’s long-standing position to support stronger compliance and verification mechanisms designed for contemporary scientific realities.
Jaishankar highlighted India’s proposal for a National Implementation Framework covering high-risk agent identification, oversight of dual-use research, domestic reporting, incident management, and continuous training; and emphasised that assistance during biological emergencies must be “fast, practical, and purely humanitarian.”
The BWC must evolve to remain effective, the EAM said while highlighting that its core principle of rejecting disease as a weapon remains vital.
“The next 50 years will demand concerted action. We must modernise the convention, keep pace with science and strengthen global capacity so that all countries can detect, prevent and respond to biological risks,” he said.
“India stands ready. We remain a trusted partner to the Global South and a committed supporter of global biosecurity,” Jaishankar said, expressing confidence that the discussions would contribute meaningfully to the upcoming Working Group session and Meeting of State Parties in Geneva next week.
Referring to how the BWC, building on the Geneva Protocol, draws a clear moral and legal line that ‘disease must never be used as a weapon’.
“Biology must serve peace, not advance harm. Even as science races ahead, the BWC remains the guardrail between innovation and misuse in the life sciences domain. But we must ask ourselves and the world a hard question: will this norm stay strong for the next 50 years? The answer depends on the decisions we take now,” Jaishankar pointed out.
Rapid developments in science and technology have led to the availability and affordability of sophisticated biotechnology tools and a marked reduction in the costs of sequencing and synthesis, he noted.
“Recent outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected each and every one of us, have imposed a steep learning curve for policy makers and practitioners alike. These developments have raised new questions to be considered in the context of the implementation of the BWC,” the minister said.
“It is clear that whether a biological threat is natural, accidental, or deliberate, it moves fast; it defies borders, and it can, and has overwhelmed systems. Public health and security may look like separate worlds. In reality, they actually reinforce each other. Systems that detect and contain natural outbreaks also help counter deliberate ones. Strong health systems are strong security systems,” he added.
“No country can manage such threats alone, and that there is no single solution, but international cooperation comes to being the closest to one. This is precisely why the Global South must be central to today’s discussion,” Jaishankar said.
Pointing to the fact that many countries in our regions still face deep gaps, fragile healthcare, weak surveillance, limited laboratories, slow emergency response, and unequal access to vaccines and medicines, he said: “These are not just developmental issues. They are also global risks. If biosecurity is uneven, so is global safety. The Global South is the most vulnerable and has the most to gain from stronger biosecurity. It also has the most to contribute. Its voice must therefore shape the next 50 years of the BWC.”
Over the last two decades India has built strong capacities across public health, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and biosciences and is known as the “pharmacy of the world”, he noted.
“I urge you today to consider a few facts – One, India makes 60% of the world’s vaccines.Two, India supplies over 20% of global generic medicines, with 60% of Africa’s generics coming from India. Three, India is home to nearly 11,000 biotech startups, up from just 50 in 2014, now it is the third-largest biotech startup ecosystem worldwide. Four, our healthcare investment has grown sharply, with major progress in digital health. Five, our research network: ICMR, the DBT labs, the advanced BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities they can detect and respond to a wide range of biological threats,” Jaishankar said.
