The international Workshop——“BUILDING A GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF SHARED FUTURE FOR BIOSECURITY: DEVELOPMENT OF A CODE OF CONDUCT FOR BIOLOGICAL SCIENTISTS” was held in Tianjin on June 25-27, 2018. The workshop was jointly organized by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, and was hosted by the Center for Biosafety Research and Strategy at Tianjin University. Mr. Zhou Long, deputy director of the Department of Arms Control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Shuxin Wang, vice president of Tianjin University, Mr. Ljupčo Jivan Gjorgjinski, chairman of the 2018 Conference of the Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, and the head of the Convention's compliance support agency, Mr. Daniel Feakes, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Officials and experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, National Health and Health Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Agriculture of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Association for Science and Technology, and the Chinese Association for Arms Control and Disarmament attended the workshop.
More than 100 representatives from more than 20 countries and 10 universities across the world, including the United States, Russia, Britain, Germany, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Netherlands, and Switzerland, the OPCW, World Organization for Animal Health, National Academy of Sciences of U.S.A., Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, University of Oxford and Bradford University attended the workshop. The representatives discussed various topics related to global biosafety situation, biotechnology development, and the Code of Conduct for Biological Scientists under the framework of the Biological Weapons Convention, the status of the international non-proliferation mechanism and its strengthening measures. During the meeting, representatives from various countries also visited the Frontier Technology Research Institute of Tianjin University, Tasly Holding Group and Novogene Technology Co., Ltd.
The Biological Weapons Convention entered into force in 1975 and currently has 180 States parties. The Convention is an important cornerstone for eliminating the threat of biological weapons and maintaining global biosecurity. The “Proposal for Code of Conduct of Biological Scientists’”, which was joint-proposed by China and Pakistan under the framework of the Convention since 2015, has received wide-range supports and was included in the 2017 Conference of the Parties to the Convention. As an international think tank, Center for Biosafety Research and Strategy at Tianjin University participated in the discussion and drafting of the “Code of Conduct for Biological Scientists”.
At the closing ceremony, Chairman Mr. Ljupčo Jivan Gjorgjinski of the 2018 Conference of the Parties sincerely thanked the Chinese government and Tianjin University for their excellent organization and advocated this important proposal internationally. Finally, the chairman suggested that the "Code of Conduct for Biological Scientists" proposed by China and Pakistan under the UN framework should be called “TIANJIN CODE OF ETHICS FOR BIOLOGICAL SCIENTISTS”.
