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BEIJING / DUBAI, November 21 – Leaders of the 20 largest economies are debating this weekend how to distribute Covid-19 vaccines, drugs and tests around the world so that the poorest countries are not in remains as nations seek ways to handle a post-coronavirus recovery.
The leaders are holding a two-day virtual meeting via video conference due to the pandemic, chaired by Saudi Arabia, which holds the rotating G20 presidency until the end of November.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which will plunge the global economy into a deep recession this year before an expected economic rebound in 2021, is high on the agenda.
“We must work to create the conditions for affordable and equitable access to these tools for all people,” Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz said in his opening speech.
G20 leaders fear the pandemic will further deepen global divisions between rich and poor.
“We must avoid at all costs a scenario of a two-speed world where only the richest can protect themselves against the virus and resume a normal life,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the summit.
To do so, the European Union urged G20 leaders to invest more money quickly in a global vaccine, testing and therapeutics project called the Covid-19 Tool Access Accelerator (ACT).
“At the G20 summit, I called for investing $ 4.5 billion in ACT Accelerator by the end of 2020, for the purchase and delivery of COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines everywhere” , European Commission Director Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter.
“We must show global solidarity,” she said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to provide Russian vaccine against the Sputnik V coronavirus to other countries and said Moscow is also preparing a second and third vaccine.
China, where the pandemic first appeared a year ago, has also offered to cooperate on vaccines. China has five local candidates for a vaccine undergoing the latest phase of testing.
“China is ready to strengthen cooperation with other countries in research and development, production and distribution of vaccines,” Xi said at the G20 summit.
“We will … offer aid and support to other developing countries and work hard to make vaccines a public good that citizens in all countries can use and afford,” he said. declared.
PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE
To prepare for future epidemics, the EU will propose a treaty on pandemics. “An international treaty would help us to react more quickly and in a more coordinated manner”, will say the president of the European leaders Charles Michel to the G20.
As the global economy recovers from the depths of the crisis early this year, momentum slows in countries with rising infection rates, recovery is patchy and the pandemic is likely to leave deep scars , said the International Monetary Fund in a report for the G20 Summit.
Poor and heavily indebted countries are particularly vulnerable, which “are on the brink of financial ruin and escalating poverty, hunger and unspeakable suffering,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.
To address this, the G20 will approve a plan to extend a debt service moratorium for developing countries by six months until mid-2021, with the possibility of a further extension, a draft statement from the government said. G20 as seen by Reuters.
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World Bank President David Malpass warned the G20 that failure to provide more permanent debt relief to some countries could lead to increased poverty and a repeat of the messy defaults seen in the 1980s.
The G20 debt relief initiative has helped 44 countries defer around $ 5 billion in debt service, but that’s a far cry from the 73 countries eligible and promised savings of around $ 12 billion . Extending temporary debt relief could encourage some additional countries to seek forbearance, experts say, but private sector creditors must also agree to participate.
Africa’s debt relief will be an important theme of Italy’s G20 presidency in 2021.
President Donald Trump did not attend and was at his golf course in Sterling, Virginia when the virtual meeting took place.
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