The United Kingdom will urge the Security Council today to press for a temporary ceasefire in war zones around the world so that the new coronavirus can be vaccinated, stressing that this is a “moral duty” for all.
British Foreign Secretary Dominique Raab, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in February, said the draft resolution to be tabled and voted on would also require “equal access” to vaccines for the whole world. new coronavirus.
“Global vaccination coverage is absolutely necessary to defeat the coronavirus,” Raab said in a press release issued by his services, explaining the need for temporary armistices to allow the vaccination of more than 160 million people. do not be vaccinated as they live in war zones: Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and elsewhere.
“We have a moral duty to take action and it is a strategic need to unite to defeat the virus,” said the Foreign Office chief.
The UK has pledged 8 548 million (€ 630 million) to the COVAX mechanism and, during today's SA meeting, as well as the current G7 summit, which it is also chairing, will push for more donations.
The British ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, acknowledged that such a decision would pose a “huge challenge from a political, logistical and economic point of view”.
Many countries, including China and Russia, members of the SA, as well as some Gulf states, have already taken initiatives under the chosen “vaccine diplomacy”, either by exploiting their own productive potential or facilitating access to vaccine doses.
However, Ms Woodward emphasized the need for global co-ordination: “This is certainly right, but it is also in the interest of all countries. “No one is safe as long as we are all safe, ” she told reporters.
The UK launched a massive immunization program in December. More than 15 million people have already been vaccinated and the government has set a goal of getting at least the first dose of the vaccine to all adults in the country by September.
But London says it is still too early to give the surplus doses it has in other countries, as it estimates that additional vaccines may be needed to treat strains of the new coronavirus.
Amid controversy between the United States and China, the Security Council took more than three months to adopt a UN Secretary-General's proposal last year to declare a global ceasefire over the pandemic, to which there has been no response so far.
