Georgia Ready To Host Russian Specialists In US-Built Lugar Lab - Foreign Ministry

Georgia is ready to host Russian experts in the US-built Lugar research center near Tbilisi, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, adding that Russian specialists should be a part of a wider delegation within the convention on the prohibition of biological weapons

TBILISI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2020) Georgia is ready to host Russian experts in the US-built Lugar research center near Tbilisi, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, adding that Russian specialists should be a part of a wider delegation within the convention on the prohibition of biological weapons.

On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Tbilisi has yet to respond to Moscow's note on a potential visit to the Lugar research facility by Russian experts.

"Georgia, as a responsible member of the convention on the prohibition of biological weapons, is ready to host Russian experts ... but such visits are possible only in the framework of the convention ... Georgia does not see the possibility to consider the unilateral visit [of Russian experts]," the ministry said, adding that such possibility was on the table in 2018.

Moscow has repeatedly expressed concerns over the Pentagon's use of laboratories in Georgia to research ways to deliver and unleash biological weapons agents in breach of international accords. Georgia and the United States have both dismissed the accusations.

The Foreign Ministry also said that the US is not carrying out any independent activities in the lab, and is not responsible for setting the goals of the research center either.

The Lugar center, with all of its equipment, became operational in 2013 and is fully owned and financed by the Georgian government since 2018, according to Tbilisi. The lab is officially called the Center for Public Health Research and is part of Georgia's National Center for Disease Control.