Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison congratulated British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the birth of his son. The leaders also discussed the situation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
“I had a good talk with Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night. I was very pleased to hear that he is back and feeling well, was able to directly congratulate him and Carrie on the recent birth of baby Wilfred. We discussed the response to the virus, how we are coping with the restrictions and intend to safely open our economies, international issues around WHO, and the need to learn from the outbreak that took so many lives and endangered his (Johnson’s) own life”, – a the Australian prime minister wrote on Twitter.
However, 9 News Australia reports that “this was Morrison’s first conversation with Johnson since the British premier got sick with coronavirus and checked out of the hospital.” It is also noted that the leaders discussed the possibility of an independent investigation into the emergence of coronavirus in China.
Earlier Australian and British media reported that closer to the end of April Morrison in conversations with U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuelle Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern advanced the idea of the need to reform the WHO system. He suggested that individual countries should be denied the right to veto proposed health strategies. At the same time, the Prime Minister advocated for a new mandate for WHO: in particular, the possibility to send a team of investigators to any country to study the factors that led to the outbreak.
Also, according to the prime minister, it is worth creating an independent organization that could verify the effectiveness of WHO during the COVID-19 crisis.