APEC summit: "We have to leave vaccination nationalism behind"

The Pacific states want to significantly increase their efforts in the fight against Corona, but also for economic recovery.

America's President Joe Biden, China's President Xi Jinping, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Russia President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation at an unscheduled, virtual summit of the Pacific Rim.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern had invited.

Christoph Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia / Pacific based in Singapore.

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"This is the biggest health and economic crisis in living memory," said Ardern.

It had invited to the first informal summit outside of the annual, regular peak meetings in November in the history of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Because this year your country leads the merger of the 21 states around the Pacific.

The group, founded in 1989, represents 60 percent of the world's economic output and half of the global trade volume.

It represents more than 2.7 billion people.

Ardern emphasized how important the cross-border fight against Corona is.

So it is essential to finally dismantle the tariffs that still apply to health products such as syringes.

"We have to leave all vaccination nationalism behind us and vaccinate as many as possible as quickly as possible," said Ardern.

Countries would develop a vaccination record and promote travel channels and "safe bubbles" among themselves to allow travel as soon as possible.

The top politicians also warned to prepare today for the next, as yet unknown, pandemic.

Confrontations between Biden and Xi?

The New Zealander emphasized the importance of "open markets" and further incentives from governments to stimulate the economies now. Ardern pointed out that the crisis had already cost 81 million jobs in the Apec region. "The recovery must be driven both digitally and sustainably," said the Prime Minister with a view to climate change: "We have to make intelligent decisions now, in the crisis." In their final declaration, the heads of state and government recognize "the importance of a free one open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and predictable trade and investment environment that can help combat the far-reaching effects of the pandemic. "

Ardern denied that there were clashes between Biden and Xi at the summit on Saturday morning New Zealand time. In the run-up to the meeting, Washington had repeatedly said that America would demonstrate its renewed interest in the Indo-Pacific region and thus defy Beijing's influence. “One of the first opportunities he has to speak to these leaders will be to highlight America's continued commitment to the region. He will develop a vision for the region that is based on our values, ”said Biden's plan in advance in the White House. It is particularly about the conquest of Beijing in the South China Sea, in which there have been clashes between Chinese and Americans in the past few days,but also had come between Chinese and Filipinos, and to crimes against humanity in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The corona situation, which was the focus of the conference, has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks: Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam are being overwhelmed by a new wave. Australia, whose government has not implemented an adequate vaccination program for months, is seeing increasing numbers of cases in the metropolises along the east coast. China has widely distributed its Sinovac vaccination in the region, but distrust is increasing due to its low effectiveness - Singapore, for example, does not recognize it as protection. While 69 percent of the population in the rich city-state received at least one dose of the vaccine from BioNTech / Pfizer or Moderna, in America it is 55 percent.Of the approximately 270 million Indonesians, however, so far only 13 percent, in Thailand 14 percent. Even highly developed Taiwan, which did everything right for months to fight the pandemic, has only vaccinated one percent of its people so far. In the Apec region, there are more than 50 million cases of infection with Corona with more than a million deaths. The Community's economic output shrank by 1.9 percent last year.9 percent.9 percent.