Your Excellency Jens Spahn, Minister of Health of the Federal Republic of Germany,
Your Excellency Olivier Véran, Minister for Solidarity and Health of the Republic of France,
WHO is honoured to welcome you both here today, and we offer our sincere thanks for your expression of solidarity and support. We’re getting today all the support we need, political and financial, as has been said, and I would like to express my gratitude. Thank you so much for all that support.
Both Germany and France are longstanding friends of WHO and global health – both individually and as members of the European Union.
For more than 50 years, France has hosted the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, and last year I was honoured to sign an agreement with President Emmanuel Macron to establish the new WHO Academy in the same city.
Likewise, Chancellor Angela Merkel has been a champion of global health, becoming the first world leader to address the World Health Assembly in 2015. But not only that, the first leader also to invite WHO in 2017, when Germany was hosting the G20, understanding the importance of health and the centrality of health.
Germany was also instrumental in the development of the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-Being for All, bringing the global health community together to drive progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Today, we are deepening that friendship.
WHO is a Member State organization; a family of nations.
WHO is what its Member States decide it should be, and works with the resources its Member States decide it should have.
Since I took office three years ago, WHO has embarked on the most significant transformation in its history.
Our aim has been to transform WHO into the organization the world needs – an organization that delivers results for the people we serve.
Every day, WHO works all around the world to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.
Every month, we detect and respond to more than 7000 public health events and potential emergencies, all over the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-century event that has shown the world was not as prepared as it should have been.
We must all learn the lessons it is teaching us: that we are one humanity, and none of us are safe until all of us are safe.
Next week, Germany will assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
This is a critical period for Europe, for the world and for WHO.
Now more than ever, the world needs leadership.
Now, more than ever, the world needs international cooperation.
Once again, I offer my profound thanks to France and Germany for your leadership and support.
Vielen dank. Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much.