"Our governments have partnered openly and transparently through the Biological Threat Reduction Program, which is a part of the US Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction Program," the statement said. "These partnerships are devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes; they have nothing to do with weapons."
Iraq, Jordan, Liberia, Philippines, Sierra Leone, and Uganda are also part of the program, the release noted.
The governments of the partner nations collectively believe that such cooperation should not be undermined, and instead it should be promoted and reinforced, the statement said. The cooperation between nations in this partnership against biological threats, such as the novel coronavirus, is important to protecting the health of humans and animals in these countries, the statement added.
The governments, according to the joint statement, encourage all parties to the Biological Weapons Convention to work together, including at the upcoming Review Conference set to take place in Geneva from November 28 to December 16.
In July, Anna Popova, the head of Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said that biolabs in Ukraine pose a risk to the world's biological security and claims that they had operated for the benefit of the Ukrainian people are false.
In February, the Russian Defense Ministry discovered the existence of 30 US-funded military biological laboratories in Ukraine. According to Moscow, Washington has spent over $200 million to develop biological weapons at the facilities. Russia also said that the labs revealed in Ukraine constitute only a small part of a global network of over 300 similar facilities.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this year that Washington is trying to justify itself by claiming that US biological activities in Ukraine were peaceful, but there is still no evidence of this.