ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for global initiative on debt relief for the poor countries in order to address their debt vulnerabilities, and create a fiscal space to deal with the impacts of the COVID-19.
Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) through a video link on Tuesday, the prime minister in his first address from his prepared speech, said that Pakistan deeply appreciates China's effective handling of the virus and also material and technical assistance extended by China to others, including Pakistan.
He made six proposals aimed at galvanising result-oriented efforts from the SCO platform with first to create a knowledge bank of best practices to fight COVID-19 in order to guide in the second wave and beyond; (ii) work out a strategy as SCO action plan to mitigate the adverse effects on the economy of COVID-19; (iii) take a united stand that COVID-19 vaccines must be viewed as public good affordable and accessible to all; (iv) call for more measure by the G-20 to meet the common challenges like climate change, inequality, poverty, disease, hunger, sustainable development and illicit movement of money of developing world; (v) formulate multi-year SCO youth policy; and (vi) develop SCO partnership of technology.
The prime minister said that China and Pakistan were also collaborating on development; and phase-III trials were successfully underway.
He said that on its part Pakistan is open in sharing its own experience, adding that although global community extended support to the poor countries to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 but there is much more needed to be done.
He said that he proposes global initiative on debt relief for the poor countries to address their debt vulnerabilities.
"We welcome measure taken by G20 and the international financial institutions to help developing countries, in particular, least developed countries to face economic challenges posed by the virus. As we speak Covid-19 pandemic continued to rage across the world, devastating economies, claiming lives and disturbing livelihood," the prime minister said and added that over 15 million people have been affected by the virus and more than 1.2 million people have lost their lives.
The devastating impact of the virus has adversely affected all aspects of human interaction and especially public health and the global economy, the prime minister added.
He added that while progress has been reported on vaccine, it is unclear as to when the vaccine would be universally available.
"Humanity faces the possibility of slow recovery and prolonged economic slump with rising poverty and inequality and under the circumstance, the impetrative of a common approach to limit the spread of infectious diseases, reduce the affect and develop remedies has increased manifold," added the prime minister.
Yet global harmony, multilateralism are undermined by rising geo-political tension and unilateralism, he said.
The prime minister said Pakistan believes that SCO's fraternity with its co-principles of solidarity and mutual support would be effective in combating the effects of COVID-19.
Pakistan strongly supports China's global digital data security initiative, he added.
The prime minister said that Pakistan has been on the forefront in struggle against terrorism and believes that it is wrong to use terrorism-related allegations as a political tool to malign any country, religion or race. It is important to address terrorism in its all manifestations including state terrorism perpetrated against people living under foreign occupation and disputed territories, the prime minister said.
The prime minister said, "We stress on the implementation of United Nations resolutions in maintaining peace around the world and advancing sustainable goals. Indian unilateral actions in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir that can disrupt the regional as well as global peace run counter to this subject and must be condemned and opposed resolutely for being in violation of SCO charter".
The prime minister said there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and negotiated political solution is the best way forward.
"As a shared responsibility, Pakistan has steadfastly supported the Afghan-led and the Afghan-owned peace process. We must be mindful of the challenges ahead specially role of spoilers within and outside who do not want peace and stability to return to Afghanistan. Return of Afghan refugees with dignity should be an essential part of Afghanistan peace negotiations," he added.
He said that on Iranian nuclear issue Pakistan shares SCO's call for effective implementation of joint comprehensive plan of action. He emphasized to address the adverse effects of climate change, illicit outflow of developing countries' wealth, and efforts to bring back the stolen wealth of the developing countries.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
Comments
Comments are closed.