[ad_1]
In a 75-minute video conference started by United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, foreign ministers from seven countries, including India, Israel and South Korea, discussed the coronavirus pandemic on Monday night. , its consequences for the world economy and the way forward.
Described as “online experimental diplomacy,” the conference also addressed resilience in supply chains, diplomacy for a single country’s dependency on supplies. In this case, China.
The Trump administration has talked about plans to move industrial supply chains out of China for some time.
Beijing’s handling of the outbreak and subsequent response appears to have amplified the urgency. As recently described by a US official, the pandemic turned out to be the “perfect storm” that crystallized countries’ concerns about dependence on China.
Mike Pompeo had alluded to the video conference on Monday, April 29 when he stated that the United States government was working with Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Vietnam to “advance the global economy” and explore the restructuring of “supply chains to prevent something like this will never happen again.”
Monday’s video conference is seen as the first big step, along with India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Marise Payne from Australia, Yisrael Katz from Israel, Taro Kono from Japan, Ernesto Araújo from Brazil and Kang Kyung-wha from South Korea.
Also read: What does the gap between the United States and China mean to the world? The | Opinion
Without a doubt, the videoconference was not a single agenda initiative.
Jaishankar tweeted that the conversation covered response to the pandemic, global health management, medical cooperation, economic recovery and travel regulations. “We look forward to continuing this commitment,” he said.
People familiar with development told the Hindustan Times that more friendly countries were expected to join similar commitments in the future.
At Monday’s conference, they said each country shared their experience in managing the outbreak and how they could help. For example, Israel spoke about the vaccine it believes is within its reach, Pompeo about the economic recovery.
The sentiment was that recovering from this pandemic, which was very different from previous virus outbreaks that were limited to particular parts of the world, will be a long journey. That countries prepare for long-term solutions and cooperation between friendly countries will be the essence of any recovery plan.
Also read: “Replace China”: India Seeks to Attract More Than 1,000 US Businesses
But China and its response to the pandemic may have been a recurring theme in the conversation.
A reading from the US State Department. USA Of the video conference, he said that foreign ministers had discussed the importance of international cooperation, transparency and accountability to “combat the Covid-19 pandemic and address its causes.”
The United States accused Beijing of suppressing early information about the virus outbreak first detected in the central city of Wuhan, and of minimizing its risks. Last month, President Donald Trump also announced that Washington would withhold its $ 400 million funds from the World Health Organization, which it has been blamed for playing alongside Beijing.
The decision by the United States to withhold the money (funded 15% of the WHO budget) highlighted the role of the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and prompted calls from other countries to be transparent and responsible for the pandemic.
State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus said the seven leaders “also discussed collaboration to prevent future global health crises and reaffirmed the importance of the rules-based international order.
“The rule of law, transparency and accountability will be key to our shared success,” Pompeo later tweeted. Australian Chancellor Marise Payne’s office also did the same with transparency, stressing that “learning the lessons of this pandemic is critical to preventing future global health crises.”
.
[ad_2]
