Coronavirus: first meeting for a divided UN Security Council

Text by: RFI Follow

It took almost five weeks for the UN Security Council to meet and formally discuss the global crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday April 9. China and the United States, opposed for a question of semantics, blocked until then any possibility of meeting until this battle was not settled. Despite the call for unity launched by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the Council reveals divisions within it.

Publicity

After almost five weeks of diplomatic frustration, the 15 countries of the United Nations Security Council (UN) finally sat, Thursday, April 9, in camera and by teleconference, at their first meeting on the Covid-19 pandemic. The United States and China, permanent members, so far blocked any exchange, explains our correspondent in New York, Carrie Nooten .

The origin of the disagreement between Americans and Chinese was semantic . The United States requested that the origin of the virus be listed as Chinese in official texts. China objected. Zhang Jun, the Chinese ambassador, stressed that " all acts of stigma and politicization must be rejected ." Finally, the two countries agreed to receive the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Portuguese Antonio Guterres, for consultation.

The Council divided between permanent and non-permanent members

Antonio Guterres insisted that if the pandemic was above all health, it threatened international peace and security, which the Council is supposed to be responsible for. The secretary general urged him to stay united to wage " the fight of a generation ". According to him, " a signal of unity and determination on his part would count a lot in the current anxiety period ".

This is the fight of a generation - and the raison d'être of the UN itself.
To prevail against the pandemic, we will need to work together.
- @ antonioguterres to UN Security Council on # COVID19. https://t.co/BF8jNVCdbH

Coordinated by France, the five permanent members (China, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Russia) are working on a resolution that would approve Antonio Guterres' call for a cease-fire. But the outcome is so uncertain that the ten other members, who are not permanent, have put on the table a second draft text. An extremely rare division within the Council, and a way of putting pressure on the "big five".

If a short joint statement was obtained Thursday evening, the ten elected countries also confirmed that they continued to negotiate among themselves their version of resolution. A wise precaution, the speeches of Chinese and American ambassadors, full of innuendo, having confirmed the precariousness of their dialogue.

Our selection on SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus

• Listen to Coronavirus Info , daily chronicle on the pandemic

• Explanation: The origins of the Covid-19

• Analysis: What strategies in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic?

• Practical questions:
→ What is the lifespan of the virus ?
→ How do you treat Covid-19 patients ?
→ Update on ongoing clinical trials
→ How the Institut Pasteur hopes to find a vaccine
→ How to make a mask and use it well

• Doctors' answers to your questions about the Covid-19

Find all our articles, reports, chronicles and programs on the coronavirus by clicking here .

See also our contents on containment .

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• UN
• Coronavirus
• United States
• China
• Antonio Guterres

On the same subject

Interview

Coronavirus: an air bridge between China and the world to deliver masks

Coronavirus: EU agrees on a common economic response