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Jokowi pushes G20 leaders to reduce vaccine inequality
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo gives a salute before boarding an airplane at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Oct. 29. Jokowi has embarked on a week-long trip aboard a chartered presidential aircraft to attend a string of high-level events in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. (Presidential Secretariat Press Bureau/-)
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has encouraged global cooperation to address ongoing and future health crises and end global vaccine inequality at the Group of 20 summit, as Indonesia receives the year-long rotating presidency of the club, whose members consist of the world’s largest economies.
“To build a world that is more resilient to pandemics and various obstacles in the future, Indonesia calls for the strengthening the global health architecture,” Jokowi said on the first day of the summit on Saturday, as quoted in a press release from the presidential office.
He proposed the creation of a scheme to gather global health resources – including funding, vaccines and health workers – to be deployed at any time to help countries facing health crises. He said G20 members should also create a unified global health protocol for international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some fellow leaders, like Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, also raised the issue of the unequal global distribution of vaccines, AFP reported. Putin blamed disparities on "dishonest competition, protectionism and because some states, especially those of the G20, are not ready for mutual recognition of vaccines and vaccination certificates", in his speech, which was broadcast on Russian state television.
Read also: Indonesia, US call on G20 to plan pandemic prevention system
Indonesia has been vocal in calling for equal access to vaccines over the past two years amid a global rush for COVID-19 jabs, including when Jokowi addressed the United Nations General Assembly in September in a prerecorded speech.
At the end of the two-day G20 summit in Rome on Sunday, Italy was to hand over the one-year rotating presidency to Indonesia, which will officially begin the chairmanship in December. It will be the first time Indonesia has held the presidency since the forum’s establishment in 1999.
