Your Excellency Wang Yi,
Mr Achim Steiner,
Excellencies, Ministers, dear colleagues and friends,
The COVID-19 pandemic is the most severe global crisis since the Second World War.
More than 8 million cases have now been reported to WHO, and more than 440,000 deaths.
The pandemic is accelerating.
In the first two months of the outbreak, 85,000 cases were reported to WHO. In the past two months, more than 6 million cases were reported.
Lives and livelihoods have been lost.
The effects of the pandemic will be felt for years to come.
The two key ingredients both for overcoming the pandemic and for supporting the global recovery are national unity and global solidarity.
We cannot succeed in a divided world.
We appreciate the role China has played in supporting the global response to the pandemic.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has been active in its assistance to, and technical collaboration with, other countries.
It sent medical teams to many countries and supplies to hundreds of countries, and carried out technical cooperation, sharing its domestic experience.
China has also committed to share any vaccine it develops as a global good.
Even as we work together to fight the pandemic, we must also listen to the lessons it is teaching us.
One of the main lessons is that health is not a luxury, or a reward for development. It is a human right, and a prerequisite for development.
Heath and health security are the foundation of sustainable development, peace and prosperity.
This pandemic also reminds us once again that health and health security are not individual, but public and global.
The health and health security of the wealthiest is inseparable from that of the most disadvantaged. This is true for individuals, communities and nations.
In that sense, President Xi Jinping’s recent call for a “community of common health for mankind” is very timely, and echoes the opening lines of WHO’s constitution, which sets out a vision for a world in which all people attain the highest possible standard of health.
Experience from many countries shows that the best way of achieving that vision is by ensuring all people can access the health services they need, without facing financial hardship – that is the essence of universal health coverage.
Achieving universal health coverage depends on building resilient health systems based on strong primary care.
Building these systems requires a commitment of political will, resources and technical expertise and support.
The Belt and Road Initiative has the potential to act as an accelerator for the achievement of universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. That’s why we say health should be at the centre of the Sustainable Development Goals. The world is now realizing that this is the case.
It can foster improvements in health and wellbeing, by supporting economic development and improving the determinants of health in participating countries, and in supporting robust, accessible health systems and public health infrastructure.
China’s recent emphasis on the ‘Health Silk Road’ and the ‘Digital Silk Road’ points to the importance of innovative forms of cooperation to deal with the challenges we collectively face.
The ‘Health Silk Road’ has the potential to support partnerships to contain COVID-19, to improve infrastructure and access to much needed health services including diagnostics, and treatment, to strengthen health systems under strain because of the pandemic.
WHO is committed to work with China and other partners to turn BRI into a true Health Silk Road and help realise and define “community of common health for mankind”.
I thank you.