The headline news from last night’s Ibero-American-Caribbean-China teleconference on COVID-19 cooperation, co-hosted by Mexican Foreign Mexican Marcelo Ebrard and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, was Foreign Minister Wang’s announcement that the Chinese government will treat any COVID-19 vaccine developed within China as a public good, ensure universal access to it to all countries, and allocate $1 billion for loans to the Ibero-American and Caribbean nations so they can purchase any such vaccine.
But broader questions of how to mobilize the international cooperation required to face the “greatest world crisis in the last 75 years,” as Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gallegos put it, were also taken up. The region is now an epicenter of the pandemic, and national health capabilities are being overwhelmed. The urgency of ensuring equitable, universal access to medical supplies, equipment and medicines for all nations was raised by various Foreign Ministers.
Wang presented a list of ways China can help to fight the disease and the economic crisis in the region. They ranged from sending medical personnel and joint work on research/development on vaccines, to promoting allocation of FAO funds to the region for enhancing food security and economic cooperation around the Belt and Road Initiative. Wang said China would make available funds from the $20 billion in the CELAC Special Lending Program for China-Latin America-Caribbean Infrastructure for building up public health infrastructure in the region. Wang also said that China would continue to increase its trade and investment with the region to help promote the region’s economic recovery, importing its products, etc.
