The United States, China and Russia fought bitterly on Thursday during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the coronavirus pandemic when the head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, told the body that they had failed in their handling of COVID- 19.
Guterres blamed “a lack of preparedness, cooperation, unity and global solidarity” for the uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus and a death toll of close to one million worldwide. More than 32 million people have been diagnosed with the virus.
“The pandemic is a clear test of international cooperation, a test that we have essentially failed,” he told the 15-member body. If the climate crisis were addressed in the same way, he said, “I fear the worst.”
US President Donald Trump, facing a re-election battle that has become more challenging as the disease spreads across the country, on Tuesday demanded action against China for spreading the “plague” of COVID-19 to the world. .
The United States has reported more than 200,000 deaths, the highest in the world, and accuses Beijing of a lack of transparency that it says has made the outbreak worse. China denies the claims.
‘Enough is enough’
US Ambassador Kelly Craft reiterated those allegations at the virtual council meeting, prompting an angry response from her Chinese counterpart, Zhang Jun.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “You have already created enough trouble for the world. … America must understand that blaming others will not solve its own problems. “
Speaking in English and highlighting deaths and cases in the United States, Zhang continued: “With the world’s most advanced medical systems and technologies, why does the United States have the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths?
“If anyone has to be held accountable, it should be a few American politicians.”
The United States “is completely isolated,” he added in remarks enthusiastically backed by his Russian counterpart.
Long-standing tensions between the United States and China have reached a boiling point over the pandemic, highlighting Beijing’s bid for greater multilateral influence in a challenge to Washington’s traditional leadership.
Craft’s attack caught many diplomats off guard.
“It’s a shame for each of you,” he said.
“I am amazed and disgusted by the content of today’s discussion… In fact, I am quite ashamed of this council, council members who took this opportunity to focus on political grudges rather than the critical issue at hand. OMG.”
Diplomats said they were puzzled by the tone taken by Craft, who had left when the Chinese ambassador spoke.
Craft was “very aggressive” after a session that had been “more or less full of consensus,” a diplomat told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.
‘Broken’
Nancy Soderberg, a former US ambassador to the UN, told Al Jazeera that the organization was “a microcosm of the state of the world” and that the irritable mood of the event underscored how “broken” the global response to the crisis had become. pandemic.
“It has not reached the point of no return,” he said. “It is in the interest of all countries to work together and take the necessary measures to keep their people safe.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, without naming names, noted that the pandemic had deepened differences between states.
“We see attempts by individual countries to use the current situation to advance their narrow interests of the moment, in order to settle accounts with an undesirable government or geopolitical competitors,” he said.
Meanwhile, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi called for better coordination and cooperation.
The UN has been coordinating a global effort to ensure that a COVID-19 vaccine is available to everyone, but neither the United States nor China has signed up. [File: Dado Ruvic/Reuters]
“Major countries have an even greater duty to put the future of humanity first, to discard the Cold War mentality and ideological biases, and to unite in a spirit of partnership to overcome difficulties,” he said.
The United States withdraws from the Geneva-based World Health Organization after Trump accused it of becoming a puppet of China during the coronavirus pandemic. The WHO has rejected Trump’s claim.
“Sometimes geopolitics has disrupted cooperation and hampered our agility. The pandemic has tested the international system like never before, ”said UK Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon. “But now is not the time to reject international institutions.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also appeared to stab the United States when he said the pandemic should not be used to undermine “all the work feminist movements have done in recent decades for gender equality.”
“We must be on guard, we must be vigilant, particularly when it comes to protecting sexual and reproductive rights,” he told the Security Council.
The Trump administration has led a push at the UN against promoting sexual and reproductive health rights and services for women because it sees it as a code for abortion. Earlier this month, the United States voted against a UN General Assembly resolution on the coronavirus pandemic in part because it included such language.
World leaders were asked to send speeches in advance for the virtual General Assembly, so Chinese President Xi Jinping was unable to respond to Trump’s video accusations when he delivered his speech.
The General Assembly spokesman, Brenden Varma, said that China had requested to circulate its right of reply in writing.
