Multilateral Strategic Dialogue on Biosecurity

Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, United States

2-3 December 2015

Le Méridien, Kuala Lumpur Sentral precinct, Malaysia

The Strategic Multilateral Dialogue on Biosecurity is a Track 2 (non-ministerial) dialogue between Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the United States. The UPMC Center for Health Security runs this dialogue pursuant to a grant from the “Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering WMD” at the Naval Postgraduate School, with funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The Center commenced the biosecurity dialogue in 2014 as a bilateral between the US and Singapore. Malaysia and Indonesia were added to the dialogue in 2015.

This is the first of its kind biosecurity dialogue, which was established to deepen partnerships and understanding between the participating countries on critical biosecurity issues in Southeast Asia. Participants address topics such as pandemic preparedness, surveillance, and response to serious infectious diseases (including laboratory capability), as well as responses to deliberate biological threats and accidents involving dangerous pathogens.

Dialogue participants were honored to have the Malaysian Minister of Health and the Ministry’s Secretary General attend the meeting’s dinner in Kuala Lumpur on December 2^nd. The agenda for the meeting, a list of participants, and biographies are included here for more information.

AGENDA

2 December 2015

08:30 – 09:00 Light Breakfast, Coffee/Tea

09:00 – 09:45 Welcome, Goals for Meeting, and Introductions

Dr. Lokman Hakim Bin Sulaiman, Deputy Director General of Health (Public Health), Ministry of Health Malaysia

Dr. Tom Inglesby, Director, UPMC Center for Health Security

Anita Cicero, JD, Deputy Director, UPMC Center for Health Security

09:45 – 11:00 Dialogue Session One: Strengths & Challenges in National Biosecurity Programs

During this opening session, we will discuss what each country views as its leading concerns, greatest strengths, and most vexing challenges related to biosecurity. Has Ebola changed the landscape or perceptions of these concerns? What are governments paying attention to now? What geopolitical issues are affecting those priorities and how? A representative from each of the 4 countries will provide opening remarks (5 minutes) on this topic, followed by a discussion by all participants.

Opening Remarks: Lokman Hakim bin Sulaiman, Kwa Chong Guan, Ratna Sitompul, Seth Carus

11:00 – 11:15 Coffee Break

11:15 – 12:30 Dialogue Session Two:  National Approaches to Risk Assessment

Countries often have different approaches to assessing and ranking risks posed by biological threats. Participants will discuss their individual country’s approach to risk assessment. What systems or processes are in place to assess risks? Which agencies are in charge of such systems? Are the biological risk assessments shared across government and understood by other government entities? What could be improved about the risk assessment processes? Is there any intention to have a regional risk assessment in the future? How does your risk assessment influence national policy? A representative from each of the 4 countries will provide opening remarks (5 minutes) on this topic, followed by a discussion by all participants.

Opening Remarks: Lee Fook Kay, Chong Chee Kheong, Ken Bernard, Ben Rimba

12:30 – 1:45 Lunch in Hotel Restaurant

1:45 – 3:00 Presentation: Modern Defense Approaches to Biosecurity

Dr. Zalini Yunus, Director, Instrumentation and Electronics Technology Division, Science & Technology Research Institute for Defence (STRIDE), Ministry of Defence, Malaysia 

Dr. David Christian Hassell, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense, US Department of Defense

3:00 – 3:30 Coffee Break and Group Photo

3:30 – 5:00 Dialogue Session Three:  Biosecurity & Biosafety in National Labs

Participants will consider recent developments on the biosafety front. How much political attention is paid to biosafety? Do your national labs have the capacity to handle all select agents? If not, do you have access to regional labs? Do you have a national incident reporting system for lab accidents? Do you have a national registry of labs that work on high-consequence pathogens/select agents? Are there regional approaches to biosafety? Should there be? How do research scientists in your countries regard current biosafety rules and guidelines? How much oversight is provided? Do you think it is too much or too little? Do you employ “personnel reliability” programs in national labs that work on high-consequence pathogens? How effective do people think these programs are? Do you think others in the region should have programs in place to mitigate the risk of an insider threat? What are important elements of a national personnel reliability program for high-consequence pathogen laboratories? How do you ensure a laboratorian is "reliable" and will not do something dangerous with a pathogen? 

A representative from each of the 4 countries will provide opening remarks (5 minutes) on this topic, followed by a discussion by all participants.

Opening Remarks: Barbara Johnson, Daniel Tjen, Tikki Elka Pangestu, Zalini Yunus 

5:00 Meeting Adjourns

6:30 Biosecurity Dialogue Dinner at Atmosphere 360 Restaurant

Jalan Puncak, 50250 Kuala Lumpur 

Dinner Presentation by the Honorable Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam, Minister of Health Malaysia (invited)

Multilateral Strategic Dialogue on Biosecurity – Day 2

3 December 2015

08:30 – 09:00 Light Breakfast, Coffee/Tea

09:00 – 10:15 Dialogue Session Four: Early Warning & Surveillance for New Threats

During past biosecurity dialogue meetings, participants raised concerns about limitations of current “early warning” systems in detecting new pathogens. It was noted that new pathogens, when tested with existing diagnostics, will result in many “negative samples,” and that governments require a strategy for resolving this issue. Participants included in their list of concerns the emergence of new zoonoses at the human-animal-ecosystem interface, disease outbreaks following humanitarian catastrophes, and acts of bioterrorism. In this session, participants will discuss the challenges in both the science and security communities regarding how to identify and manage new threats, as well as how to create effective approaches for early detection of engineered pathogens, whether accidently or deliberately released. What are your early warning systems for new threats? Do you have sentinel surveillance systems in place? Are your hospital medical records connected to public health response mechanisms? A representative from each of the 4 countries will provide opening remarks (5 minutes) on this topic, followed by a discussion by all participants.

Opening Remarks: Pratiwi Sudarmono, Julie Fischer, Noreen Hynes, Chong Chee Kheong, Michelle Yap

10:15 – 11:00 Presentation on Emerging Zoonotic Threats

Rozanah Asmah Abd Samad, Senior Principal Assistant Director, Surveillance and Epidemiological Section, Biosecurity Management Division, Department of Veterinary Services in Malaysia

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break

11:30 – 12:15 Presentation:  Perspectives on Terrorism in Southeast Asia

Discussion Leaders:  Endy Bayuni, Senior Editor, The Jakarta Post and Kwa Chong Guan, Senior Fellow, S. Rajarathnam School of International Studies

12:15 – 1:30 Lunch in Hotel Restaurant

1:30 – 3:45 Tabletop Exercise

This tabletop exercise will focus on an infectious disease emergency that affects each of the 4 countries. Participants will be presented with a series of unfolding events and will be asked to consider their nations’ likely responses to the different elements of the scenario. The goals of the exercise are to increase mutual understanding among all participants, identify issues that merit deeper dialogue, and provide new and possibly unexpected insights about the potential impacts of and reactions to crises related to an emerging infectious disease. After the exercise is concluded, participants will be asked to reflect on the scenario proceedings and discuss the findings that were most useful, most surprising, most reassuring, and/or most concerning.

3:45 – 4:00 Coffee Break

4:00 – 4:30 Tabletop Debriefing and General Discussion

Group Questions for Discussion: What do you think your country would do well in a crisis like this? What would be most challenging? What was most surprising to you? What do you think are the most significant potential leadership mistakes that could be made and should be avoided? How would relations between our countries be affected? What are your major take-aways from this exercise? 

4:30 – 5:00 Proposals for Future Biosecurity Dialogue Topics

Closing comments and group discussion about future biosecurity topics to be addressed during dialogue in 2016.

5:00 Meeting Adjourns