The G7 agreed to donate one billion vaccines against the coronavirus for poor countries

06/13/2021 11:27 AM

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 06/13/2021 11:27 AM

The G7, the group of the world's most developed economies, announced this Sunday

an agreement to donate more than one billion doses of

coronavirus

vaccines

to developing countries.

"I am pleased to announce the (G7) commitment of 1 billion doses of vaccines,

either directly or through funding

from (the international program) COVAX," said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the summit in Cornwall ( Southwest England), at the summit's closing press conference.

In the final communiqué of the meeting, signed by the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada and the United States, it is specified that the commitment of direct donations

reaches 870 million doses

, half of which are must allocate before the end of this year through the COVAX program.

In his speech, Johnson said that

100 million of those doses

will come out of the United Kingdom.

The joint statement explains that the commitments made by the seven countries since the beginning of the pandemic, either through financial contributions or direct donations, bring

the total cooperation to 2,000 million doses.

But there was no shortage of people who reminded them that

it takes eleven times more

to inoculate the world against a virus that has killed 3.7 million people.

"I think this summit

will go down in history as a missed opportunity

when we needed 11 billion vaccines, and they only offered us a plan for a billion," lambasted former British Labor Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

IMF

For her part, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, stressed the need to

help developing countries

overcome the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus, warning of the risk of "dangerously divergent recoveries".

In this sense, the G7 announced a plan promoted by the United States to help

"low and middle income countries"

, from Latin America to the Pacific, to recover from the pandemic, with the development of infrastructures focused on climate, health , the digital world and the fight against inequality.

Baptized

"Rebuilding the Better World"

and estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars, it has the clear objective of countering a Chinese project called "New Silk Roads", consisting of major works abroad.

The G7 also called for a more in-depth study by the World Trade Organization (WTO)

on the "origins of covid-19"

, with the participation of China, which it urged on the other hand to "respect human rights" in the Xinjiang region. , home to the Uighur Muslim minority, and in Hong Kong, where Beijing has cracked down on democracy advocates.

He also called on Russia to

put an end to its "destabilizing activities"

, including interference in the democratic systems of other countries and cyberattacks with data theft programs attributed to groups in that country.

And he urged Moscow to comply with its international human rights obligations,

"urgently" investigated

the use of chemical weapons on its territory and ending "its systematic repression of civil society and independent media."

Asked about the suspension of vaccine patents - a measure advocated by more than 100 countries around the world, including the United States - Johnson said that "what is really important is to increase

manufacturing capacity around the world

, especially in Africa." .

"The way forward is to sell vaccines at cost,

we defend the Oxford / AstraZeneca model,"

said Johnson, who insisted on the need to accelerate the transfer of knowledge and manufacturing technology to developing countries.

Source: EFE and AFP

PB

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