The logo of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the entrance to its headquarters in Geneva. – Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
The 194 countries of WHO meet virtually on Monday for the first time in its history to discuss the international response to the coronavirus pandemic, with Sino-American tensions and the discussions on Taiwan and vaccines as a source of friction.
Many heads of state, government and ministers are scheduled to speak at this World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the UN agency, which opens at 12 p.m. and ends the next day. at midday. Despite escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing, countries hope to adopt a long-standing EU resolution by consensus. She asked to launch “as soon as possible … an evaluation process” to examine the international health response and the measures taken by WHO in response to the pandemic.
“Universal, rapid and equitable access to all products”
The text also calls on WHO to “collaborate closely with the World Organization for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and countries (…) in order to identify the zoonotic source of virus and to determine by what route it entered the human population, (…) in particular by means of scientific missions and missions of collaboration in the field ”.
It also calls for “universal, rapid and equitable access to all the products (…) necessary for the response to the pandemic”, and stresses the role of “large-scale vaccination against Covid-19, as a good global public, to prevent, stem and eliminate transmission in order to end the pandemic. ”
“Difficult” questions, such as the origin of the virus, will be addressed
“Informal agreement was reached to adopt the resolution by consensus. This will be an important result because WHO will be the first world forum to find a unanimous text, “said a European diplomatic source. According to this source, even the “difficult” questions are tackled there, including the origin of the virus and the reform of the WHO, demanded with great shouts by the United States.
“No subject was avoided” in the resolution, whether in particular “to continue to reform WHO and in particular its capacities which have proved insufficient to prevent a crisis of this magnitude”, assured the same European source to AFP. “I hope we can join the consensus,” said Andrew Bremberg, the US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, on Friday.
Washington, which accuses Beijing of having concealed the scale of the epidemic, is engaged in a standoff with the WHO, accused by US President Donald Trump of having “planted” itself in the management of the pandemic in aligning with the Chinese position. In the process, he suspended the American contribution to WHO.
Taiwan’s membership issue
Institutional reform, Taiwan, access to vaccines, sending experts to China … There is no shortage of angry subjects, but the question of the origin of the virus remains the focal point of the Sino-American War of Words. The United States calls for an investigation on the subject, like Australia, and suspects Beijing of having hidden a laboratory accident which would have been at the origin of the pandemic. Washington now accuses China of trying to hack American research on a vaccine, in the midst of American-European rivalry over a future vaccine. And US President Donald Trump has threatened to “cut off all relations” with Beijing.
At the same time, the United States government believes that the WHO neglected an early warning from Taiwan about the severity of the coronavirus, which the UN agency denies. And the United States, supported by some countries, called on the WHO to “invite Taiwan” to the AMS, despite opposition from China.
However, after being granted observer status, Taiwan was expelled from WHO in 2016, the year in which Tsai Ing-wen came to power. The president refuses to recognize the principle of the unity of the island and mainland China within the same country. In Geneva, the WHO assures that it is up to the member states alone to decide whether to accept Taiwan or not. It remains to be seen whether a country will call a vote. If there were a vote, it would “torpedo” the very functioning of the assembly because of the logistical problems it would pose, said a diplomatic source.
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