Vietnam ready to join hands with other countries in COVID-19 fight

Deputy Foreign Minister To Anh Dung emphasised this during a seminar on co-operation in response to immediate medical challenges, held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in co-ordination with the French Embassy on January 15 in Hanoi.

Those in attendance at the event included French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery, Kidong Park, chief representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), and Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, chair of the Vietnam-France Friendship and Cooperation Association. They were joined by an array of representatives of a number of ministries, localities, hospitals, and enterprises which work alongside France in the health sector.

In his opening remarks at the function, Deputy Minister Dung assessed that the seminar is of significant importance, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic still threatening the lives of millions of people globally. It also provides a platform for delegates to exchange and share public health policies and measures relating to bilateral and multilateral international co-operation in an effort to deal with the pandemic and prevent future health threats.

Following the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, no borders, country, or territory can control and defeat it inpidually.

Due to this the nation fully supports the WHO in its role in co-ordinating global pandemic containment efforts. As the Chair of ASEAN in 2020, the country has stepped up joint regional efforts in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most notably, the UN General Assembly moved to adopt a resolution drafted by Vietnam which declared December 27 as the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.

Within the framework of the UN, for the first time on December 27, 2020, the international community organised "International Day for Disease Control and Prevention" in line with a resolution passed by the UN. Indeed, this featured the Vietnamese proposal, with many countries responding to the joint initiative.

Using the seminar as a platform to evaluate the country’s COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control measures in his role as a WHO representative, Park said that the nation has many potential risks of being hit by a COVID-19 outbreak due to sharing a border with many countries. However, so far the nation’s pandemic prevention measures have been carried out in an effective manner, especially when compared to other nations with a similar population in terms of the number of infections and deaths caused by COVID-19.

Park went on to congratulate the Vietnamese side on having two vaccines that have made it into the clinical trial phase, adding hope that the nation will reap more new achievements through the Nano Covax vaccine in order to access the world's advanced technology for the local health sector

Participants also shared their experiences regarding Vietnamese efforts, achievements, bilateral, and multilateral co-operation policies in combating the pandemic, while also highlighting the role and participation of the WHO and the Global Fund in the COVID-19 fight.

They therefore agreed that amid the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, featuring many unpredictable challenges, the vaccine story is opening up new rays of hope, although it still requires closer co-ordination and global combined efforts.

The seminar also offered a number of practical ideas and initiatives in coping with global health challenges, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic.