UN urges global effort to defeat COVID-19

The United Nations has urged global cooperation on COVID-19 that is sweeping the world.

The UN General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday recognizing "the unprecedented effects" of the coronavirus pandemic and calling for "intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat" the COVID-19 disease.

It was the first resolution adopted by the 193-member world body on the pandemic and reflects global concerns at the fast-rising death toll and number of cases.

The resolution reaffirms the General Assembly's commitment to international cooperation and multilateralism and its strong support for the central role of the United Nations system in the global response to COVID-19 pandemic.

It calls on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to lead the mobilization and coordination of a global response to the pandemic and "its adverse social, economic and financial impact on all societies".

The resolution recognizes COVID-19's "severe disruption to societies and economies, as well as to global travel and commerce, and the devastating impact on the livelihood of people", and stresses that "the poorest and most vulnerable are the hardest hit" and must be helped.

The resolution also emphasizes the need to respect human rights and oppose "any form of discrimination, racism and xenophobia in the response to the pandemic".

The 15-member Security Council is expected to discuss the pandemic this week, Associated Press said.

Responding to the UN General Assembly's resolution, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday that Moscow calls on all countries to closely coordinate their coronavirus response efforts in order to minimize the death toll and the pandemic's negative impact on the global economy, according to TASS.

At the same time, Russia's foreign ministry slammed some global players' unwillingness to lift sanctions amid the pandemic as outrageous. "We regret that even in the face of a global health threat, they found it impossible to abandon politicized approaches," the statement adds.

The United Kingdom Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has published a report that calls the world's experts to stand together in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Pandemics do not respect borders. They require a response based on science, evidence and international cooperation, the report said. The UK government is working closely with partner countries to combat COVID-19, both bilaterally and through multilateral forums, including the European Union, G7 and G20, the report said, adding that the UK financially supports the World Health Organization.

The report also said it is clear that existing regional and multilateral organizations are not achieving the international cooperation needed to fight a global pandemic, adding that it is up to governments to forge consensus on action required to save lives now and to prepare for future pandemics.

A "G20 for Public Health", for example, could ensure that cooperation between expert researchers across the globe can flourish, even in the absence of united political leadership, the report said.

Such a framework should be science-led, with participation contingent on honest cooperation in the open and transparent sharing of public health data, according to the report.

In an article published by the New York Times on Sunday, China's Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai wrote that China is doing whatever it can to support the United States and other countries in need. New York, America's epicenter of the pandemic, is one of the biggest destinations of China's assistance, he said.

"At a time when solidarity is essential, we need to keep cool heads and clearly say 'no' to the folly of fanning racism and xenophobia, and to scapegoating other countries or races," Cui said. "Such acrimony will not only undercut cooperation between our nations, but also sow seeds of suspicion and confrontation that could put our peoples－and even the world－in grave danger from this runaway virus and the economic fallout it is causing."

As the two biggest economies in the world, Cui said, China and the United States need to lead international efforts in collaborative research into treatments and vaccines, and explore the sharing of pharmaceutical technologies among nations. "We need to help countries with underdeveloped medical systems and contribute to better global health governance," he wrote.

China Daily