Within the context of the global vaccine shortage, the Chief of the Private Office of the Foreign Ministry, Guillermo Justo Chaves, met with the European Union ambassador to Argentina, Aude Maio-Coliche, and they both agreed on enhancing cooperation and multilateralism to encourage a more equitable supply of vaccine doses among countries, as well as for the sharing of experiences and knowledge regarding Covid-19.
They highlighted last Sunday’s delivery of the first 218,400 vaccine doses for the Argentine Republic, acquired through the Covax system. This initiative, to which the EU contributed 2.25 billion euros, is led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, which seeks a more equitable distribution of vaccine doses and the facilitation of more equitable access for countries. The European Union is the largest donor in the Covax system, an unprecedented global initiative, and, during 2020, it also contributed 3 billion euros to finance research to combat the pandemic.
In addition, Chaves and Aude Maio-Coliche agreed that, in a context of global vaccine shortage and in view of a global demand by societies to speed up the vaccination process, Argentina and the EU consistently ratify that the vaccine must be a universal public good, and therefore, greater cooperation between countries and decisive action to enhance multilateralism are key.
They also discussed the possibility of laboratories granting countries licenses for vaccine manufacturing and the idea of Presidents Fernández and Macron that patents be waived in that regard.
The ambassador and the Chief of the Private Office stressed that Argentina and the European bloc must continue to advance a common cooperation agenda to mitigate the social, health and economic consequences posed by the pandemic, and highlighted the decision made by the administration of President Alberto Fernández as well as by the EU to promote like never before international solidarity and multilateral fora in order to overcome present and future challenges together.
