Indonesia Committed to Equal COVID-19 Vaccine Access: Foreign Minister
Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno LP Marsudi. Source: YouTube channel of Presidential Secretariat.
Indonesia continues to promote equal vaccine access for all countries in the world in order to tackle the global pandemic.
“President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has stated that economic recovery can only be achieved if we can overcome the pandemic together, and the pandemic can only be overcome if we can narrow the gap in access to vaccine,” Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno LP Marsudi said on Friday (24/09), quoting a statement delivered by the President at the 76th UNGA General Debate Session on Thursday (23/09) Western Indonesian Time.
The President, she added, delivered the same message at the Global COVID-19 Summit on Wednesday (09/22), stating that vaccine inequality among the countries must be overcome through the COVAX Facility, dose-sharing cooperation, and equal access to vaccine.
For the record, the Summit aims to garner support and implement a concrete action to provide an additional seven billion doses of vaccine by the end of this year and a further seven billion doses by mid-2022.
“According to the President, solidarity and cooperation are the keys to overcoming the pandemic,” Retno said.
The Foreign Minister further said that the vaccine access gap has become a global concern today, adding that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has highlighted the gap among the countries in the world.
“The [UN] Secretary-General said that we passed the science test but we got an F in ethics. The statement reflected the Secretary General’s concern over the vaccine access gap,” Retno remarked. (TGH/UN) (RI/MUR)
