The need for more vaccines and financial support: the keys to Argentina’s proposal to the World Health Summit

After announcing the strict detention until May 30, the President Alberto Fernandez will participate this Friday in the World Health Summit organized by the Italian Presidency of G20 and the European Commission.

Its objective is to strengthen the global health system for pandemic preparedness and response, both from a strictly health perspective and in examining post-COVID-19 economic stimulus measures.

The virtual meeting is scheduled today at 8:30 a.m. and, from Olivos, the president will be accompanied by the Minister of Health Carla Vizzotti.

The context is not ideal, since the country is going through the second wave of coronavirus with a toll of infections and deaths, but Alberto Fernández is currently working on several fronts. One of the main ones is debt negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. Therefore, it gives priority to all aspects that strengthen multilateral relations.

In this way, at the World Health Summit convened by Draghi and Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, the Argentine President with Vizzotti will raise in his presentation different axes related to international cooperation, access to vaccines against COVID-19 and the need for financial support in the current complex context.

The content of one of the main points that Alberto Fernández will present was devised weeks ago, as part of his tour of Europe to strengthen the search for an agreement with the IMF.

One of the meetings that the Argentine President held in Rome was with the Italian Prime Minister, Mario draghi. At the meeting, in addition to providing support in the discussion on external debt, Draghi told Alberto Fernández that at the G20 meeting to be held in his country in October, he will propose an agreement with the 20 countries to establish a health network that works in a coordinated manner against COVID-19.

In agreement with the Italian Prime Minister, the President will save this dialogue and promote in his proposal the international coordination of health policies to find common solutions and build bridges of cooperation between countries to achieve progress amid the pandemic.

In this direction, Jorge Argüello, Ambassador to the United States and Argentine Sherpa of the G20, indicated in the last hours in his social networks that “the principles that will be adopted in the ‘Rome Declaration'” will “promote” greater multilateral cooperation to prevent future health crises global organizations and assume a common commitment to creating concrete tools for strengthening health systems ”.

In addition, Alberto Fernández will put on the table another of his objectives: that the Copyright vaccines. The president assumes that the suspension of vaccine patents will speed up the arrival of doses due to the industrial procedures involved. The message is consistent with the above, among other chairmen, by Joe Biden, Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Emmanuel Macron. In fact, before the President of the United States revived the issue, which was celebrated by Fernández, the latter had already expressed it during the G20 in November 2020 chaired by Saudi Arabia.

During this presentation, the Argentine president recalled that at the G20 summit on the coronavirus which had been held in March, he had proposed to move forward in a global pact of solidarity and in the creation of a Global Fund for the humanitarian emergency.

In close association with this idea, another of the axes of the President’s presentation which will be discussed during the morning will be linked to equitable access to vaccines. In fact, Argentina was aligned with the guidelines issued in the United Nations Assembly that the UN, through the World Health Organization, question the countries which monopolize more doses than necessary in a context of their scarcity and thus require a criterion of balance in the distribution of shipments.

There is a concept related to the subject that Alberto Fernández has in mind. A fact he heard from the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard, during the tour he made in this country: 80% of the world’s inoculants have been distributed in just 10 countries, the most powerful in the world. Information is one of the arguments which will motivate the declaration of the Head of State.

In turn, the last point made by Fernández concerns the financial economic policies to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic He will insist on the debt negotiation, its deadlines and the elimination of surcharges, aspects that have the support of Draghi, who has promised to discuss the issue at the G20 in Italy, and of the leaders the president visited during the meeting. his last tour. . After the meeting with the Pope and the head of the Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, within the government, they consider that it is the favorable scenario to continue betting to assert their position.

This is why the Argentine president aims for the G20 to intercede, in the context where the economic crisis has been worsened by COVID-19, and for the most powerful countries to collaborate with the nations with the lowest indices to alleviate the costs, extended payment terms and flexible credit lines are generated which contribute to a gradual reactivation.

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