Developing countries in Central Asia are making notable strides in their attempts to increase their governmental capacity to guard against biological-weapon threats, according to the U.S. State Department.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation Simon Limage on Friday noted how countries in the region — which stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east — have recently adopted practices intended to improve biosecurity. Multiple strains of plague and anthrax, which both are considered candidates for use in a biological-weapons attack, are endemic to the region.
“We have an interest in local efforts being successful in that particular region,” Limage told an audience at a Stimson Center event on international efforts to prevent weapons-of-mass-destruction attacks.
Noting the U.S. government’s “longstanding relationships” with scientific experts in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Limage said he was “heartened by the fact that there’s a number of key agents that are taking a serious approach to biosecurity, and that’s the way it should go.”
To read the full article, click here.