China Offers to Lend US$1 Billion to Latin America to Buy Chinese Covid-19 Vaccines

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Chinese regime is becoming active in the region, amid the catastrophe of the coronavirus pandemic born in late 2019. In this context, Mexico and China chaired an online meeting with other Latin American and Caribbean nations to discuss international cooperation in the fight against Covid-19 and the challenges posed by the global health emergency.

The online meeting was attended by both the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, and the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi. Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay were also represented by their respective Foreign Ministries.

For his part, Ebrard expressed his gratitude for the support of the Chinese regime and its partners in Latin America and the Caribbean in the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on international cooperation to ensure global access to drugs, vaccines and medical equipment to tackle Covid-19, adopted by the organization with the co-sponsorship of 179 other countries.

The Mexican Foreign Minister further stated that over the coming months the common priority must be to take action for the development of treatments and vaccines, in addition to the establishment of effective mechanisms for their universal distribution. “The resolution was an important expression of solidarity and political commitment that we must now translate into action,” Ebrard told his counterparts.

The Chinese official, in turn, expressed his gratitude for the cooperation of Latin American countries during the most difficult period of the pandemic, according to the Mexican Foreign Ministry’s communiqué.

Wang Yi also stressed that the vaccine developed in his country “will be a public good of universal access and that a loan of US$1 billion will be allocated to support access to the vaccine for the region’s nations.”

During one of the most recent morning conferences from the National Palace, Ebrard announced that Mexico is currently engaged in several projects to expedite the development, production, and access to vaccines against Covid-19. According to estimates released by the Foreign Minister, one of the goals of access to the drug is the distribution of two billion vaccines among 77 countries, and he assured that “it will reach Mexico on time, it will be there.”

President Andrés López Obrador’s representative explained that Mexico is part of the Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Within the CEPI’s framework, he disclosed that Mexico was involved in four different projects. Among these, he said, were the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Biotechnology Institute, AVIMEX, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), the Autonomous University of Querétaro (UAQ) and the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN).

He also reported that the Mexican government has access to all the CEPI protocols, so that in the event that a vaccine is successfully achieved, the relevant data will be available on time and the Health Secretariat will be able to decide which of the vaccines would be administered in Mexico.

The process to obtain it would be through a consolidated purchase, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Source: infobae