Every country for itself won’t do

An important feature of the global fight against the coronavirus is that each country is fighting its own battle against it in its own ways. Though a disaster of such spread and magnitude calls for a coordinated, if not unified, response, that has not happened and is not forthcoming. One reason may be that most countries cannot help each other as they are all affected and have to depend on their own resources — human, financial, technical and managerial — in their fight. The response of the G-20 leaders’ virtual summit last week, called reluctantly at India’s prodding, should have struck a different note in such a situation, but it did not. The joint communique called for coordinating work on vaccines and medical supplies and expanding the mandate of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The $5 trillion ‘global economic stimulus’ agreed upon was merely a sum of the stimulus packages they had each announced for themselves.

The response seems to be only for appearance and may even be dubbed a charade. All countries are trying to save their economies from sinking and keep their people safe, and there is no scope for thinking about others even in a world which is much more connected than ever in the past. During the 2008 financial crisis and the Ebola crisis of 2015, there were better coordinated global responses. Such a response is not seen now though the crisis is much bigger. One reason may be that countries have turned more inward, and nationalism has a stronger hold on the minds of people. The rise of many right-wing governments and leaders in many countries who swear by and practise an ultra-nationalistic creed is a sign of that, and that constrains the scope for cooperative international action in many situations. It is a difficult situation—the virus is a global citizen, while the leaders are not.

It is not just G-20 that is seen as not rising to the occasion. The European Union (EU) and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which are the world’s strongest economic blocs, did not have much contribution to make though the crisis has hit some of their member-states badly. A Group of 7 (G-7) virtual summit only made a general statement. The UN Security Council has not yet met and even the WHO’s actions have come under criticism. It is unfortunate that multilateral institutions and organisations are unable to intervene and act effectively in a situation where they have an important role to play. Countries and leaders should not forget that together the world wins, and divided it falls.