Provisions = conditions?

Provisions usually means supplies.

I think that "modest provisions" means "limited supply" but that doesn't really work with "breakthrough deal".

So I'm thinking they mean stipulations -- the breakthrough deal doesn't have a lot of stipulations, which I guess means the supply can be freely shared.

I think this has more to do with the law. Provisions are used as conditions, or stipulations while making an agreement on issues. In this instance, I'm just guessing, but I'd think that before you send a dangerous virus between countries, the countries recieving the specimens, should have certain equipment in labs, or hospitals, trained medical staff and rules to insure that the viruses didn't infect people. They would probably want transportation of germs done very specifically and so on...

Thank you both.

But we'll all need a certain answer.