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The foreign minister of Bangladesh has emphasized on the formulation of a coordinated and effective global health strategy to deal with any epidemic in the future like Corona. A. K. Abdul Momen.

He said this at the opening session of the foreign minister level meeting called the Covid-19 Global Action Plan held in New York on Friday (September 24).

Dr. In his speech, Momen highlighted Bangladesh’s extraordinary success in managing Covid under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, saying that the root of this success lies in saving lives as well as sustaining livelihood resources, providing special assistance to those at high risk and ensuring rapid reconstruction of the economy affected by the epidemic by providing immediate incentives.

He said, Bangladesh is ready to share the experience and knowledge gained in managing Covid with others.

Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain Jose Manuel Albarez Bueno and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Botswana. Lemogang Kwape jointly hosted this Covid-19 Global Action Plan Ministerial Meeting. In addition to the foreign ministers of several countries including Japan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, the Director General of the World Health Organization and high-level representatives of a significant number of countries and organizations participated in the meeting.

Appreciating the multilateral platforms like ACT-A and COVAX set up and run under the auspices of the World Health Organization to facilitate access to vaccines and other covid materials, the Foreign Minister emphasized on coordinated multilateral initiatives to address the global challenge.

Reminding that the fight against the Covid pandemic is not yet over, he emphasized on the continuation of the immunization programme. The foreign minister reiterated the importance of declaring vaccines a “global public good” and distributing them among all countries without discrimination.

He stressed on capacity building in the health sector and in this regard, it is necessary to ensure the provision of necessary funds to low-income countries. Welcomed the initiative of the Financial Intermediary Fund recently formed under the supervision of the World Bank for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPR) and expressed hope that this fund will effectively play the role of coordinating and complementing various ongoing investments in the health sector.

A joint statement outlining specific recommendations and progress was issued at the end of the meeting. The statement highlighted the updated progress of the steps taken in the light of the 6 key action plans of the Covid-19 Global Action Plan to combat Covid-19 and the role of the foreign ministries of various countries in enhancing political will and coordination. In addition, emphasis is placed on continuing the concerted efforts of Global Action Plan partners to take the remaining steps to ultimately address the epidemic and to develop more advanced and effective health protection frameworks to prevent such health threats in the future.