World needs more cooperation, not less, to defeat Covid-19 and rebuild: Vivian tells UN

Published Sun, Sep 27, 2020 · 09:50 PM

Washington

WARNING that protectionism and unilateral action will ultimately be self-defeating, Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told the 75th UN General Assembly (UNGA) that no nation, large or small, will be safe unless all are safe together.

He said that what is needed now is vaccine multilateralism, and greater international cooperation to ensure equitable and universal access to Covid-19 vaccines.

Speaking early on Sunday morning via video link to the UNGA which for the first time ever has had to go almost completely virtual on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, he said that bodies like the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization and the UN needed reform.

But he warned that the multilateral system is "confronted by nationalism, xenophobia, the rejection of free trade and global economic integration, and the bifurcation of technology and supply cha…