International solidarity against Covid-19: The story of a bundle of chopsticks

Secretary General of the United NationsAntonio Guterreshas assessed that the epidemic situation is still out of control, and that partly comes from the fact that the world has not been able to gather the necessary solidarity in responding to Covid-19, like a bundle of chopsticks that has been disassembled by the selfish calculations of each country.

"War of words" in cyberspace

Today is the day of the General Assembly session.United Nationswill close – concluding the most special congress in the 75-year history of the formation and development of the largest multilateral organization on the planet. During more than a week of the congress, the image posted on all global media was of an empty auditorium, with the only representative of each country sitting meters away from each other. The Covid-19 epidemic is the cause of such a special congress, and is also the content that the heads of states debated most fiercely. Although the leaders of the countries only gave online speeches, the distance of virtual space did not reduce the heat of the debates, did not reduce the anger that the representatives of the countries "poured" into their speeches.

Special session of the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: AP

As expected by analysts, the United Nations General Assembly session has become a forum for a fierce "war of words" between the US and China in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.US President Donald Trumphas “attacked” China by calling on countries to hold China accountable for allowing the Sars-CoV-2 virus to spread to the world, recalling China’s concealment of information about the dangerous virus’s ability to spread from person to person. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping has rejected the US’s accusations that China considers “groundless”, while emphasizing that China is actively participating in the global fight against Covid-19 and contributing to maintaining global public health security, pledging to continue sharing its experience in disease control and prioritizing support for developing countries when it successfully produces a Covid-19 vaccine.

But the spirit of restraint in Xi Jinping's speech in the face of the US "attack" could not be maintained for long. Because in his speech right at the UN hall, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun accused the US of "having caused enough trouble for the world". The Chinese representative also raised the issue that the US has the most advanced technology and medical system in the world, but has the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 in the world, and that is the US's problem, not any other country's. China also repeated the call that the US had previously made to China, which is to "act like a great power" - although it is still unclear whether both China and the US have "acted like a great power" during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Big countries have not fulfilled their responsibilities, that is also the view that many countries accuse,heat up the "war of words"revolving around the world's fight against Covid-19. While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed out that "many countries were left alone" when the pandemic broke out, Brazilian President Bolsonaro emphasized the "economic disaster" that many countries are facing and the risk of a "new Cold War" between the US and China during the pandemic, and Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the sanctions imposed by countries on many UN member states in the context where the world should have supported each other to revive the economy and create jobs after the "fatal blow" of Covid-19... All the views shared by the leaders ultimately highlighted the fact that the world seems powerless to contain the spread of Covid-19, in the words of French President Emmanuel Macron, "collective helplessness"!

US President Donald Trump harshly criticized China at the UN General Assembly session. Photo: AP

Bitter confession

The world seems helpless incontain the spread of Covid-19Perhaps it is not an exaggeration to look at the current epidemic situation. The world now has more than 33 million people infected with Covid-19, the number of deaths just surpassed 1 million yesterday. Notably, the number of new Covid-19 cases per day has not shown any signs of slowing down, approaching 300,000 cases per day. In many countries, the scenario of a second wave of Covid-19 has become increasingly apparent, and scientists are even concerned that the peak of the second wave will be even more terrible than the peak of the first wave.

In such circumstances, the call for international solidarity to respond to Covid-19 that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly made seems to have fallen into vain. Although he warned that “unity is in the interest of each country, otherwise everyone loses”, at this session of the UN General Assembly, he had to bitterly admit that “The pandemic is the clearest test of international cooperation – a test that we have fundamentally failed”. Mr. Guterres pointed out that many countries have lost the connection between power and the ability to lead the world. Mr. Guterres's comments can be clearly seen through the story of vaccines - the solution that is considered the only solution for the world to overcome the pandemic.

Currently, the World Health Organization's "Vaccine Initiative" to create a mechanism to distribute Covid-19 vaccines to poor countries has 156 participating countries. However, the names of two major countries, the US and China, are not included, despite the World Health Organization Director-General Adhanom Ghegbreyesus's call to "Swim together or sink together". So far, this initiative is still short of 700-800 million USD to mobilize enough 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine and still does not know where to "rely".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres admitted failure in rallying international solidarity against Covid-19. Photo: UN

The United Nations has been receiving a lot of criticism for its inability to gather international solidarity in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, but many people have realized that the criticism aimed at the United Nations is also aimed at its members, because all efforts of the United Nations will not be effective when they encounter obstacles from the most influential members. This is most evident when the US and China - two members with veto power in the Security Council - continuously accuse each other of inappropriate handling of the pandemic as well as politicizing the Covid-19 pandemic, but refuse to participate in the common effort of the "Vaccine Initiative". Of course, a position in the United Nations Security Council is a powerful weapon for countries to influence the most important issues of world politics, while affirming their national position. But that weapon has the "opposite effect" when the world is in dire need of solidarity to respond to a global health crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic.

Looking at the way the world is responding to Covid-19 today, many people think of the image of a bundle of chopsticks being disassembled. Therefore, many people believe that the United Nations needs to make structural changes to strengthen its most important role of mobilizing international solidarity to respond to global threats – threats that are much more complex and difficult than when this organization was founded 75 years ago.