Matera (Italy) (AFP)
Multilateralism will be "crucial" to face the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ruled on Tuesday at a G20 meeting in Matera, southern Italy.
"Multilateral cooperation will be crucial for our collective ability to end this global health crisis," he said at the opening of this meeting, expressing a radical change of position vis-à-vis the Trump administration.
"This is also true for the work we need to do to strengthen global health security so that we can better detect, prevent and respond to future health crises," he said.
"To end the pandemic, we need to get more vaccines. The Covax Multilateral Initiative is ensuring that vaccines are distributed fairly and get to countries that need them most."
It is only in this way that we will be able to "help African countries to cope with the shock of the (pandemic) Covid and to revive their economies for the good of the international community", he concluded.
Italian Minister Luigi Di Maio, whose country currently chairs the G20, also spoke in favor of "effective multilateralism under the aegis of the UN", recalling that "Italy was among the first country to call for an international alliance for the health response to the pandemic ".
"The Italian presidency of the G20 (...) sets itself the objective, through multilateralism, of fighting against the health, social and economic impact of the pandemic to promote a sustainable, inclusive and resilient recovery", he summarized. .
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Representatives of the G20 countries, the UN and the EU are all physically present at this meeting, with the exception of the Chinese, Brazilian and Australian ministers.
Russia and South Korea are represented by their deputy foreign ministers.
Food security will also be part of a joint session between Foreign Affairs and Development ministers, organized for the first time within the framework of a G20 ministerial conference with the aim of relaunching the objective of eradicating hunger in the world by 2030.
© 2021 AFP