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NEW YORK: The United States, China and Russia fought on Thursday (September 24) during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the coronavirus pandemic after UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the body that if the climate crisis was approached with the “same disunity and disorder” of COVID-19, then: “I fear the worst.”
Guterres said the coronavirus was out of control as the global death toll is approaching 1 million, while more than 30 million have been infected. He blamed “the lack of global preparedness, cooperation, unity and solidarity.”
“The pandemic is a clear test of international cooperation, a test that we have essentially failed,” he told the 15-member body.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and top Chinese government diplomat Wang Yi criticized the United States during the post-COVID-19 virtual global governance council meeting, to which US Ambassador Kelly Craft responded : “It is a shame for each one of you.”
“I am shocked and disgusted by the content of today’s discussion … council members who took this opportunity to focus on political grudges rather than the critical issue at hand,” she said.
Although he did not name any country, Lavrov noted that the pandemic had deepened the differences between the 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.
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Long-standing tensions between the United States and China reached a boiling point over the pandemic, highlighting Beijing’s bid for greater multilateral influence in a challenge to Washington’s traditional leadership.
Wang called for better coordination and cooperation among key powers on Thursday.
“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 spirit or partnership to overcome difficulties,” he said.
‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’
US President Donald Trump faces a battle for re-election on November 3, as the United States faces the world’s highest official death toll and infections from the coronavirus. Washington accuses Beijing of a lack of transparency that it says exacerbated the outbreak. China denies the US claims.
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Craft reiterated those accusations Thursday, echoing a call by Trump for the world body to hold China accountable.
China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, rejected their accusations, saying, “Enough is enough. You have already created enough problems for the world … The United States must understand that blaming others will not solve its own problems.”
The United States has announced plans to leave 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.
“At times geopolitics has disrupted cooperation and hampered our agility. The pandemic has tested the international system like never before,” said British 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 reproductive rights,” he told the Security Council.
The Trump administration has led a push at the United Nations against promoting sexual and reproductive health rights and services for women because it sees that 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.
