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Exclusive | Coronavirus: WHO row between US, China sees G20 leaders summit called off at last minute, source says
- The Group of 20 (G20) planned to hold a second virtual leaders’ summit on Friday, to be attended by President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump
- But the video conference was called off amid US-China row over World Health Organisation (WHO), but could happen in near future
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A planned video conference between G20 leaders on Friday was called off at the last minute due to a bitter quarrel between China and United States over the role of World Health Organisation, according to a source who was involved in the preparation for the call.
The source, who declined to be named due to the private nature of the debates, said that the US has been insisting on holding the World Health Organisation (WHO) accountable for its early activities in handling the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed over 190,000 people across the globe, including close to 50,000 in the US.
China, on the other hand, strongly refuses to discuss proposals to investigate the WHO, the source said.
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“As such, the conference was called off at the last minute,” they said, adding that the summit could still happen in the near future, if both sides can agree on a compromise over the WHO, or at least over the wording on the WHO in the G20 communique.
The US thinks the WHO was partial to China and China should be responsible for the heavy losses in the US
The proposed video conference, which would have been attended by President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, was not shown on the official agenda published by Saudi Arabia, the Group of 20 (G20) president for 2020.
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