US President Donald Trump on Friday snubbed a World Health Organisation (WHO) convened virtual meeting to galvanise global action against the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
The UN World Health Organisation Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus invited world leaders and other stakeholders, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, to participate in a virtual initiative called Global Coronavirus that was held on Friday.
The initiative preceded a virtual world coronavirus summit to raise funds for fighting the disease in May this year, according to the WHO organisers.
US President Donald Trump, however, failed to participate in Friday’s virtual meeting which was designed for the leaders to initiate cooperation on stopping the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, it might be recalled, is at war with the WHO – blaming the United Nations agency for misleading him in his botched fight against the virus in his own country which has seen the death of over 50,000 people from the virus which he once called “a hoax” by the Democratic Party which is trying to oust him.
In addition, to show his unhappiness, the mercurial US leader has single-handedly decided to cut US$400 million in US contribution to the WHO. The US Congress, however, is responsible for the funding allocation to international bodies.
In spite of Washington’s absence from the virtual gathering, the launch took place with French President Emmanuel Macron; German Chancellor Angele Merkel; Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission; a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation representative, and Ramaphosa, who was invited to participate in the event in his capacity as president of South Africa and African Union chairman.
Ramaphosa commended Ghebreyesus on his stewardship of efforts to fight and eliminate the COVID-19 pandemic globally. He also expressed appreciation for the timely launch of this collaboration.
The initiative seeks to create “a global platform for action to enhance connections and leverage inter-dependencies for collective thought-partnership, problem-solving, mobilising and guiding investments in the wake of the pandemic,” the director general said.
The initiative would also ensure that there is equitable global access to technologies needed to fight the virus, Ghebreyesus said, adding that the launch of the collaboration was the start of a 10-day countdown to a coronavirus global response summit on 4 May.
The summit will be a virtual pledging event spearheaded by the European Union to mobilise the significant resources needed to accelerate the work towards protecting the world from COVID-19, according to the UN agency.
NM/jn/APA