Countries that did not support the Russian draft resolution on the fight against the coronavirus epidemic in the UN General Assembly have shown a politicized approach, the commentary posted on the Russian Permanent Mission website said.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmitry Kuleba, previously announced the blocking of the resolution calling for the weakening of the sanctions regime.
As noted in the Russian diplomatic mission, on April 22, a group of Western countries and the states that supported them prevented the adoption of the draft Declaration proposed by Moscow, co-sponsored by 34 UN countries.
The Permanent Mission indicated that the draft resolution called on the world community to show solidarity in the face of a pandemic, support for developing countries and the rejection of unilateral economic sanctions against them.
“Putting the question this way, we primarily responded to the appeals of these countries themselves, which are experiencing serious problems in confronting the disease due to coercive measures against them”, – the permanent mission explained.
The draft resolution also spoke about the importance of universal coverage of health services, increasing the production of medicines and their availability. The text pointed to the need to provide international financial institutions with support to countries in need, and to send urgent humanitarian assistance. The document also condemned manifestations of racism and xenophobia in the context of the fight against infection.
“Having blocked the approval by the General Assembly of such a document, those who took this step signed the reluctance to move away from politicized approaches, phobias and narrow group interests. They clearly demonstrated that the calls they made for solidarity and help countries with limited resources to fight coronavirus are nothing more than a propaganda device”, – concluded diplomats, noting that you can’t help and “squeeze the noose around the neck of those” who are being helped.
The World Health Organization on March 11 announced an outbreak of a new coronavirus infection COVID-19 with a pandemic. According to the latest WHO data, more than 2.47 million cases of infection have been recorded in the world, over 169 thousand people have died.