At United Nations, China, US and Russia clash over coronavirus response

Name: Trump and Xi trade barbs over Covid-19 as world leaders voice fears at UN’s 75th General Assembly
Uploaded: 2020-09-24T18:19:12.000Z
Duration: 3 min 2 s
Description: Trump and Xi trade barbs over Covid-19 as world leaders voice fears at UN’s 75th General Assembly

Superpowers trade blame at UN Security Council just two days after secretary general lamented lack of international cooperation over ‘out-of-control’ pandemic

UN chief says he fears the worst, and that ‘as countries go in different directions, the virus goes in every direction’

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China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference in Beijing in December 2017. Photo: AFP

Associated Press

Published: 2:19am, 25 Sep 2020Updated: 9:08pm, 13 Oct 2020

The United States butted heads with China and Russia at the United Nations on Thursday over responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic that has interrupted the world, trading allegations about who mishandled and politicised the virus in one of the few real-time exchanges among top officials at this year’s social-distanced UN General Assembly meeting

The remarks at the UN Security Council’s ministerial meeting on the assembly’s sidelines came just after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried the lack of international cooperation in tackling the still “out-of-control” coronavirus.

The sharp exchanges, at the end of a virtual meeting on “Post Covid-19 Global Governance”, reflected the deep divisions among the three veto-wielding council members that have escalated since the virus was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January. They also crackled with an energy and action that the pre-recorded set pieces of leader speeches at the virtual meeting have thus far lacked.

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Trump and Xi trade barbs over Covid-19 as world leaders voice fears at UN’s 75th General Assembly

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking first, stressed the importance of UN-centred multilateralism and alluded to countries – including the US – opting out of making a Covid-19 vaccine a global public good available to people everywhere.

“In such a challenging moment, major countries are even more duty-bound to put the future of humankind first, discard Cold War mentality and ideological bias and come together in the spirit of partnership to tide over the difficulties,” Wang said.

And in a jab at US and European Union sanctions including on Russia, Syria and others, he said: “Unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction needs to be opposed in order to safeguard the authority and sanctity of international law.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the pandemic and its “common misfortune did not iron out interstate differences, but to the contrary deepened them.”