Leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies have pledged to ensure a fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and tests around the world and do what is needed to support poorer countries struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
“We will spare no effort to ensure they’re affordable and equitable access for all people, consistent with members’ commitments to incentivise innovation,” the G20 leaders wrote in their closing communique.
“We recognise the role of extensive immunisation as a global public good,” it said.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has thrown the global economy into a deep recession this year and efforts needed to support an economic rebound in 2021, were at the top of the agenda at the virtual G-20 summit hosted by Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s King, Salman bin Abdulaziz told world leaders in his opening remarks that there is optimism “about the progress made in developing vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics tools for COVID-19, but we must work to create the conditions for affordable and equitable access to these tools for all people.”
“We have a duty to rise to the challenge together during this summit and give a strong message of hope and reassurance to our people by adopting policies to mitigate this crisis.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping offered to cooperate on vaccines, saying Beijing will “offer help and support to other developing countries, and work hard to make vaccines a public good that citizens of all countries can use and can afford”.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin offered to provide Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to other countries, while French President, Emmanuel Macron spoke of the need to “avoid at all costs a scenario of a two-speed world where only the richer can protect themselves against the virus and restart normal lives”.
European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen however admonished that “more funding is needed,” to plug a $4.5bn (£3.3bn) gap in the so-called ACT-Accelerator, a mechanism led by the World Health Organization that aims to ensure access to tests, treatments and vaccines for all.
“At the G20 Summit, I called for $4.5bn to be invested in ACT Accelerator by the end of 2020, for procurement & delivery of COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines everywhere,” European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter. “We need to show global solidarity,” she said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel revealed Germany was contributing more than 500 million euros ($592.65m) to the effort and other countries to do their part.
At a news conference, Saudi Finance Minister, Mohammed al-Jadaan emphasised that there was consensus among G20 nations that “if we leave any country behind, we will be behind”.
The communique also revealed the G20 will endorse a plan to extend a freeze in debt service payments by the poorest countries to mid-2021 and endorse a common approach for dealing with debt problems beyond that.
G20 nations have contributed more than $21bn to combat the pandemic, which has infected 56 million people globally and left 1.3 million dead, and injected $11 trillion to “safeguard” the virus-battered world economy.
