[ad_1]
The Trump administration urges the EU to support an international investigation into how China handles Covid-19, including the source of the pandemic.
The United States is pressing for an international investigation into whether China mishandled Covid-19 in the early stages of the outbreak, resulting in a global pandemic that killed nearly 260,000 people and paralyzed the entire economy. Bridge or not.
The idea of an independent Covid-19 investigation was initiated by the Australian government in mid-April and quickly became the focus of Sino-Western battles. Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye recently accused Canberra of “colluding” with Washington to attack Beijing.
Fearing to offend both China and the United States, the European Union (EU) initially proposed an international investigation to analyze “the lessons learned from the international medical response to Covid-19”, to help improve future epidemic responses. The EU proposes a draft resolution to be adopted at a conference from 17 to 20 May by the World Health Assembly, the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, this proposal did not meet the United States’ requirements for investigation of the origin of nCoV. Washington officials have repeatedly accused that nCoV could leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, which angered Beijing, saying it was a “public deflection” strategy after Washington made many mistakes. in the treatment of pandemics.
The EU proposal also did not seek to blame any country for the pandemic and the investigation was only carried out when the Covid-19 crisis passed.
“In my opinion, we need to independently examine what happened, outside of the guilt war between the United States and China, which only exacerbates their confrontation,” said Josep Borrell, a noncommissioned officer. Responsibilities of the EU’s foreign policy, he said in the interview last weekend.
Health workers care for patients in Hubei province, China, last month. Image: Xinhua
However, as the session of the World Health Assembly approached, although pressure from the United States also increased, increasingly tense negotiations were held to discuss the draft EU proposal. , when WHO members made many recommendations for changes.
On May 5, an EU spokesperson said that understanding the epidemiological field of the Covid-19 pandemic was “essential” for officials to make “comprehensive decisions.” Sources familiar with the talks said the United States’ concerns were reflected in the current draft resolution.
A spokesman for the Chinese mission in the EU said Beijing had captured Europe’s ideas but had no comment.
The State Department spokesman said the same day: “We trust allies and partners who join the United States in raising difficult questions that China, as well as the WHO, will ask to prevent epidemics. Controlled such a boom in the future.”
The EU proposal came after the United States and many governments increasingly criticized China’s slow response to Covid-19 in the early days of the outbreak, when it was supposed to prevent the virus.
Beijing responded by answering the call to open an international Covid-19 investigation and also raised its own doubts about the origin of nCoV, including that the US military. USA He may have brought the virus to China. Quoc.
EU officials previously said they would support the idea of an independent investigation, but said they should not lose global coordination to prevent Covid-19, the pandemic that has infected more than 3.7 million people. all over the world.
However, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas declared earlier this week “everyone wants to clarify the exact origin of nCoV.”
Beijing’s diplomacy and propaganda strategy became increasingly aggressive after the pandemic, as ambassadors and state media repeatedly attacked and rejected criticism of how China handled Covid-19.
Covid-19 has appeared in more than 210 countries and territories, having originated in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Cup currently registers more than 3.7 million cases, almost 260,000 deaths and more than 1.2 million deaths.
Ngoc Anh (Follow WSJ)
