Coronavirus: India joins Germany, France, others to support WHO; subtly disapproves US move against it

India indicated that it would not support any move to put the WHO under scanner at this time

India has joined Germany, France and 22 other nations in endorsing the World Health Organization (WHO) as the “backbone” of the efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic – signaling that it had no intention to rally behind the United States, which launched a tirade against the international agency.

The Foreign Ministers and the senior diplomats of the 25 member-nations of the “Alliance for Multilateralism” had a video-conference on Thursday to discuss the ways to strengthen the “key international organisations” in the efforts to contain the virus, which infected nearly two million people and killed over 1,30,000 of them so far around the world. “What we need now is more international coordination, not less,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said after the video-conference, which was convened by him and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian.

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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar did not participate in the “Alliance for Multilateralism” video-conference, but senior diplomat Vikas Swarup, Secretary (West) at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), represented India.

“A priority is to strengthen key international organisations so that the crisis can be brought under control,” Maas was quoted saying in a post on the official website of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. “The Alliance for Multilateralism is therefore supporting the call issued by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a worldwide ceasefire, as well as the work of the World Health Organization (WHO) as a key coordinator of the efforts to tackle the pandemic.”

“We need to strengthen international organizations – especially @UN and @WHO. Weakening the @WHO now would be like throwing the pilot out of the plane during a flight. We agreed on this at the meeting of the Alliance for Multilateralism,” Mass posted on Twitter.

Germany and France led the “Alliance of Multilateralism” to support the WHO just after the US President Donald Trump suspended funding to the agency accusing it of “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread” of the COVID-19 virus from China.

The COVID-19 virus was previously unknown before the outbreak began at Wuhan in China in December 2019.

Trump criticised the WHO for not recommending restrictions on travel from China to the US and other nations for several days after the COVID-19 outbreak was reported in the communist country.

India indicated that it would not support any move to put the WHO under scanner at a time when the international organisation should instead be allowed to do its job of coordinating the global effort to contain the pandemic. A source in New Delhi stated that the “question” on the WHO’s role could be revisited once the world would have had addressed the crisis.

Germany and France were, however, more candid in disapproving the US move to suspend funding to the WHO.

“Blaming others won't help. The virus knows no borders,” Maas tweeted on Wednesday. “One of the best investments is to strengthen the UN, above all the under-financed WHO, for the development and distribution of tests and vaccines.”

France too expressed regret over the US move against the WHO.

The video-conference of the Alliance for Multilateralism on Thursday saw more nations coming out to support the WHO – tacitly disapproving the US campaign against the organisation.

“(The) UN and (the) WHO need our strong support,” Pekka Havisto, Foreign Minister of Finland, tweeted after the virtual meeting.

New Delhi did not make public the statement Swarup, the MEA Secretary (West), presented during the video-conference of the Alliance for Multilateralism. He, however, tweeted that “improvements in global health governance and multilateral institutions to fight the pandemic” were discussed at the virtual meet.

French and German Foreign Ministers had launched the “Alliance for Multilateralism” on April 2, 2019. It is an informal coalition of countries to protect multilateralism at a time of growing nationalism and protectionism around the world. The launch of the coalition itself was a response to the US President’s “America First” policies and his decisions to slash American Government’s funding for multilateral organisations like the United Nation as well as to pull out from bodies like the United Nations Human Rights Council and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and from pacts like the Paris Climate Agreement.