China supports WHO in continuing to lead pandemic agreement negotiations

GENEVA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China hopes that the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to lead the talks over the pandemic agreement, an official with China's National Disease Control and Prevention Administration (NDCPA) said here Tuesday.

The pandemic agreement is one of the key elements of global public health governance reform in the future, said Hu Guang, who is in charge of NDCPA's health emergency response.

China has been actively participating in the negotiations, playing a constructive role in drafting the agreement, Hu said in an interview with media.

Hu also said China has always firmly defended multilateralism, advocated the concept of global solidarity, underscored respecting national sovereignty and enhancing the core role of the WHO, and actively addressed equity issues in pandemic.

Although WHO member states did not reach consensus on the articles of the agreement before this year's World Health Assembly, considerable progress has been made in the negotiations through joint efforts of member states and the WHO over the past two years, Hu noted.

He said member states have agreed on many provisions, laying a solid foundation for the follow-up talks to promote the issuance of the agreement.

"We know that there is still a long way to go before the new international instrument is signed, and some of the mechanisms and working measures mentioned in it need to be further improved," Hu said.

Therefore, China hopes that WHO will continue to play a leading role in strengthening global coordination to increase support for developing countries at the technical, financial and resource levels, so as to effectively solve the existing equity-related issues, overcome shortcomings in global pandemic response and fulfill the original aspiration of formulating the new international instrument, Hu noted.