Covid-19: Bolsonaro Snubs United Nations Meeting with 90 Heads of State

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is not attending a meeting organized by the United Nations on Thursday and Friday to address the impact of Covid-19. A total of 90 presidents and heads of government are taking part in the meeting at the United Nations General Assembly to coordinate an international effort to tackle the crisis.

All of the world’s governments have been invited. But in the list published by the UN, Brazil will only be represented by Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo and, consequently, has been placed at the bottom of the speech line. According to the diplomatic protocol, priority is given to presidents and prime ministers.

Among the leaders who have taken the floor by videoconference or who are scheduled to speak in the meeting’s two days are Angela Merkel (Germany), Giuseppe Conte (Italy), Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkey), Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani (Qatar), Miguel Díaz-Canel (Cuba), Justin Trudeau (Canada), Yoshihide Suga (Japan), Francisco Rafael Sagasti (Peru), Luis Alberto Arce (Bolivia), Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Iván Duque (Colombia), Luis Lacalle Pou (Uruguay), Emmanuel Macron (France), Narendra Modi (India), Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), Erna Solberg (Norway), Boris Johnson (United Kingdom), Pedro Sanchez (Spain), and many others.

Among the countries most affected by Covid-19, only Brazil and the United States have not sent their heads of state.

Over the past few months, the Brazilian government has criticized international organizations both for their response to the pandemic and for their insistence on making recommendations. At different summits, Bolsonaro has stressed the need to reinforce sovereignty and shun any gesture of support for multilateralism.

The Brazilian president has also allied with Donald Trump’s administration in trying to pass amendments to resolutions that undermine the role of the World Health Organization and other international agencies.

Patents

Meanwhile, at the World Trade Organization, Brazil has once again teamed up with wealthy countries and on Thursday challenged a proposal by emerging countries to suspend patent rights on vaccines for Covid-19.

In total, 99 out of approximately 160 countries members of the organization declared their support for the project. The goal is to ensure that intellectual property will not be an obstacle to the access of billions of people worldwide to the vaccine, until there is global herd immunity against the virus. International organizations, such as the W.H.O., have expressed support for the idea, as well as social movements and churches all over the world.

However, in reversal of decades of a traditional stance of Brazilian diplomacy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs chose to refuse to join the group suggesting the suspension of patents.

According to Brazil, the list of relevant patents submitted by South Africa fails to provide a clear picture of the specific obstacles faced by countries. The government reiterated that the existing agreements offer sufficient political room for members to implement the required measures to protect public health without disrupting innovation efforts.

Brazil stated that the proposal would pose even greater implementation challenges, as well as creating legal uncertainty.

Source: UOL