A/RES/54/61 Page 2 Recalling its resolution 49/86, adopted without a vote on 15 December 1994, in which it welcomed the final report of the Special Conference of the States Parties to the Convention,3 adopted by consensus on 30 September 1994, in which the States parties agreed to establish an ad hoc group, open to the participation of all States parties, whose objective should be to consider appropriate measures, including possible verification measures, and draft proposals to strengthen the Convention, to be included, as appropriate, in a legally binding instrument to be submitted for the consideration of the States parties, Recalling also the provisions of the Convention related to scientific and technological cooperation and the related provisions of the final report of the Ad Hoc Group of Governmental Experts to Identify and Examine Potential Verification Measures from a Scientific and Technical Standpoint,4 the final report of the Special Conference of the States Parties to the Convention,3 and the final documents of the Review Conferences, Recalling further the Final Document of the Twelfth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Durban, South Africa, from 29 August to 3 September 1998,5 in which the heads of State or Government noted the progress achieved so far in the negotiation of a protocol, stressed the importance of achieving further substantive progress for the conclusion of a universally acceptable and legally binding instrument designed to strengthen the Convention and reaffirmed the decision of the Fourth Review Conference of the Parties to the Convention urging the conclusion of the negotiations by the Ad Hoc Group as soon as possible before the commencement of the Fifth Review Conference, Welcoming the reaffirmation made in the Final Declaration of the Fourth Review Conference6 that under all circumstances the use of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons and their development, production and stockpiling are effectively prohibited under article I of the Convention, Recalling the declaration of the informal ministerial meeting, held in New York on 23 September 1998, in which the participants and the co-sponsors affirmed their strong support for the Convention and for strengthening its effectiveness and improving its implementation, Bearing in mind the forthcoming seventy-fifth anniversary of the signature of the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, signed at Geneva on 17 June 1925,7 and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction on 26 March 1975, 1. Welcomes the progress achieved so far in the negotiation of a protocol to strengthen the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological 3 BWC/SPCONF/1. 4 BWC/CONF.III/VEREX/9 and Corr.1. 5 A/53/667–S/1998/1071, annex I; see Official Records of the Security Council, Fifty-third Year, Supplement for October, November and December 1998, document S/1998/1071. 6 BWC/CONF.IV/9, part II. 7 League of Nations, Treaty Series, vol. XCIV (1929), No. 2138. /...