MINSK, October 11 - RIA Novosti. The Government of Belarus has instructed the Foreign Ministry to hold negotiations with Russia on a draft memorandum of understanding on biosafety and sign it, according to a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the republic published on the national legal portal.
In July, the Russian government instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry to sign a memorandum of understanding on biological safety with Belarus.
In addition, the Belarusian Government decided to authorize the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic to negotiate on the draft memorandum, allowing, if necessary, to make changes to it that are not of a fundamental nature, as well as to sign the memorandum when an agreement is reached within the approved project.
The resolution emphasizes that it was adopted "in order to develop cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation in the field of biological safety."
Earlier, the State Secretary of the Belarusian Security Council, Alexander Volfovich, said that during the consultations held in Moscow at the end of September with colleagues from Russia, mechanisms for countering current challenges and threats were worked out, including issues related to biological safety. Prior to that, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said that the EAEU countries need to coordinate their positions on biological security in conditions when bacteriological research for military purposes is not excluded in the world, and adopt an appropriate strategy.