The head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken met Wednesday, July 28 in Kuwait with the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), to whom he lent his
"support"
in his efforts to deepen the investigation in China on the origin of the pandemic.
"The United States supports the WHO plan to conduct additional studies on the origins of Covid-19, including in the People's Republic of China, to better understand the pandemic and prevent the next ones,"
tweeted the secretary of State, at the end of this meeting which took place in the evening on his arrival in the Gulf country - and which was not announced on his agenda.
Read also: Origin of the Covid: the track of the Chinese laboratory is becoming clearer
He also
"underlined the need for the next phase"
of this investigation to be carried out
"by experts"
, in a
"transparent"
and
"timely" manner
, but also
"evidence-based"
and
"without interference"
, his spokesperson Ned Price reported in a statement. Antony Blinken
"insisted on the importance of the international community agreeing on this crucial issue"
.
The two men also spoke of their
"collaboration to continue to reform and strengthen the WHO,"
whose former US President Donald Trump had slammed the door, denouncing a UN agency subject to Beijing, but that his successor Joe Biden reinstated.
Read also: Covid-19: "A laboratory leak, at this stage, it is the only hypothesis that makes sense"
More than a year and a half after the start of the pandemic, scientists are still struggling to trace its origin and the subject has become yet another point of contention in the already strained relations between Washington and Beijing. The theory that the Covid-19 could have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus was first detected at the end of 2019, has come back in force in recent months after being swept away for a long time. a wave of the hand by most experts.
But the first phase of the WHO investigation, criticized by many countries including the United States, failed to shed light on this controversial issue. China has strongly criticized the WHO's request to conduct an audit of laboratories in regions where the first cases of coronavirus have been identified. The White House denounced last week this Chinese opposition, deemed
"irresponsible"
and
"dangerous"
.