Your Excellency Prime Minister Modi,
Excellencies,
Namaste.
First of all, condolences to Morocco. More than 600 people have died in the earthquake, and we have already mobilised our support.
The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that when health is at risk, everything is at risk: lives, societies, and economies.
Healthy economies depend on healthy people.
And healthy people depend on a healthy planet.
The health of humans, our planet and our economies are inseparable. We do not have to choose between them; it is a matter of having each in harmony, as Prime Minister Modi said, and of reducing the inequalities that harm each of them.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank the G20 leadership for establishing the task force for finance and health ministers, as well as for establishing the Pandemic Fund, which is hosted by the World Bank.
Today I have two requests:
First, I seek your personal support for a strong pandemic accord, including a commitment to equitable access to medical countermeasures. A good pandemic accord will help us to prevent a pandemic like COVID in the future.
And second, I seek your personal commitment to forging a new global economy that preserves and promotes the intimate links between the health of people and planet.
I would like also to seek your personal participation with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the three high-level meetings on pandemic preparedness, UHC, and also TB during the upcoming UN General Assembly.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, it is health that is real wealth, not pieces of gold and silver.
Finally, congratulations to the African Union for joining the G20.
Thank you.