UNITED NATIONS: China, the United States and Russia butted heads at the United Nations on Thursday over responsibility for the pandemic that has interrupted the world, trading allegations about who mishandled and politicized the virus in one of the few real-time exchanges among top officials at this year\u2019s COVID-distanced U.N. General Assembly meeting.<\/p>\n
The remarks at the U.N. Security Council\u2019s ministerial meeting on the assembly\u2019s sidelines came just after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried the lack of international cooperation in tackling the still \u201cout-of-control\u201d coronavirus.<\/p>\n
The sharp exchanges, at the end of a virtual meeting on \u201cPost COVID-19 Global Governance,\u201d reflected the deep divisions among the three veto-wielding council members that have escalated since the virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January. They also crackled with an energy and action that the prerecorded set pieces of leader speeches at the virtual meeting have thus far lacked.<\/p>\n
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking first, stressed the importance of U.N.-centered multilateralism and alluded to countries \u2014 including the U.S. \u2014 opting out of making a COVID-19 vaccine a global public good available to people everywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn such a challenging moment, major countries are even more duty-bound to put the future of humankind first, discard Cold War mentality and ideological bias and come together in the spirit of partnership to tide over the difficulties,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n
And in a jab at U.S. and European Union sanctions including on Russia, Syria and others, he said: \u201cUnilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction needs to be opposed in order to safeguard the authority and sanctity of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the pandemic and its \u201ccommon misfortune did not iron out interstate differences, but to the contrary deepened them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a whole number of countries there is a temptation to look abroad for those who are responsible for their own internal problems,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we see attempts on the part of individual countries to use the current situation in order to move forward their narrow interests of the moment in order to settle the score with the undesirable governments or geopolitical competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n
All that was too much for the United States\u2019 U.N. ambassador, Kelly Craft, who opened her remarks late in the meeting with a blunt rejoinder.<\/p>\n
\u201cShame on each of you. I am astonished and disgusted by the content of today\u2019s discussion,\u201d Craft said. She said some representatives were \u201csquandering this opportunity for political purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump has made it very clear: We will do whatever is right, even if it\u2019s unpopular, because, let me tell you what, this is not a popularity contest,\u201d Craft said.<\/p>\n
She quoted Trump\u2019s speech Tuesday to the virtual opening of the General Assembly\u2019s leaders meeting in which he said that to chart a better future, \u201cwe must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world: China.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chinese Communist Party\u2019s decision to hide the origins of this virus, minimize its danger, and suppress scientific cooperation (that) transformed a local epidemic into a global pandemic,\u201d Craft said, adding that these actions \u201cprove that not all member states are equally committed to public health, transparency , and their international obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she ended her remarks saying one lesson from the pandemic is the need for \u201cunity, not division,\u201d and calling for council members \u201cto work together in transparency and in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chinese U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun asked for the floor at the end of the meeting and delivered a lengthy retort, saying \u201cChina resolutely opposes and rejects the baseless accusations by the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbusing the platform of the U.N. and its Security Council, the U.S. has been spreading political virus and disinformation, and creating confrontation and division,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n
Zhang said: \u201cThe U.S. should understand that its failure in handling COVID-19 is totally its fault.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia expressed regret that Craft used Thursday\u2019s meeting \u201cto make unfounded accusations\u201d against one council member. and quoting Lavrov saying the crisis has shown the need for \u201cthe interdependence, interconnectedness of all states without exception in all walks of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responding to Craft\u2019s call for unity, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to disagree with that. But unfortunately, the crux of her statement, its form and its tone, do not correspond to that appeal at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
The United Nations chief said in opening the Security Council meeting that the world failed to cooperate in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. Guterres said that if the world responds to even more catastrophic challenges with the same disunity and disarray, \u201cI fear the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the international community\u2019s failure \u201cwas the result of a lack of global preparedness, cooperation, unity and solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guterres pointed to the nearly 1 million people around the world that the coronavirus has killed, the more than 30 million who have been infected.<\/p>\n
He said the global response is more and more fragmented, and \u201cas countries go in different directions, the virus goes in every direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is needed more, Guterres said, is a cooperation that not only involves nations but includes global and regional organizations, international financial institutions, trade alliances and others including the business community, civil society, cities and regions, academia and young people.<\/p>\n
Lavrov also praised the World Health Organization for acting professionally and providing \u201ceffective preventive steps\u201d to minimize the pandemic\u2019s effect. U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the WHO, accusing the U.N. agency of being under Chinese influence.<\/p>\n
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UNITED NATIONS: China, the United States and Russia butted heads at the United Nations on Thursday over responsibility for the pandemic that has interrupted the world, trading allegations about who mishandled and politicized the virus in one of the few real-time exchanges among top officials at this year\u2019s COVID-distanced U.N. General Assembly meeting. The remarks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[1388,1020],"class_list":{"0":"post-28077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-files","9":"tag-covid-19","10":"tag-united-states"},"yoast_head":"\n