Elvira Kadyrova
The Central Asian countries Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and 24 other countries of the Middle East and Asia-Pacific region have agreed to develop cooperation and partnership in the field of COVID-19 vaccines within the framework of the flagship Chinese initiative of Belt and Road.
The official launch of the initiative took place on 23 June during the Beijing-hosted Asia-Pacific High-level Conference on Belt and Road. The conference was dedicated to “Promoting cooperation on Combating the pandemic for sustainable recovery”.
According to the text of the initiative published on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the above-mentioned nations call upon Belt and Road partners to focus on the following areas:
– Strengthen communication on vaccine regulatory policies to jointly ensure the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
– Encourage vaccine producing countries, which are in a position to do so, to support vaccine companies in providing more vaccines to the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility of the WHO.
– Support the provision of vaccines by governments and companies to developing countries either through donation or export at affordable prices.
– Facilitate joint vaccine research, development and technological exchanges, and encourage transferring relevant technologies to developing countries.
– Promote partnerships between vaccine producers and developing countries for joint vaccine production towards the scaling up of global production.
– Encourage regional and multilateral development banks to provide more concessional financing to developing countries for their vaccine procurement and production, while respecting each country’s right to select its preferred vaccines.
– Strengthen Belt and Road cooperation on connectivity to ensure cross-border flows of vaccines.
The full text of Initiative for Belt and Road Partnership on COVID-19 Vaccines Cooperation is available here: https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/topics_665678/kjgzbdfyyq/t1886387.shtml
/// nCa, 25 June 2021