Greek PM Calls for New Global Health Architecture at UN’s 75th Anniversary Session

Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the Covid-19 pandemic is an emphatic reminder of why multilateral cooperation is so necessary, in a video message to world leaders as the United Nations marked its 75th anniversary on Monday.

The Greek premier called for a new “global health architecture,” that would provide “equal access to vaccines” for everybody.

The anniversary kicked off at the global body’s annual UN General Assembly, when normally leaders and representatives of nearly 200 countries gather en masse to sound off about the world’s problems and offer myriad solutions.

Instead, with Covid-19 still limiting global movement, just one representative from each of the 193 UN members were allowed to participate, and that had to be someone who was already in the United States. Everyone else will have to appear by videoconference, including at least 160 heads of state.

Mitsotakis stressed that the pandemic is an “emphatic reminder” of why multilateral cooperation works and why it is so necessary.

“The leading role of the United Nations, and especially of the World Health Organization, is crucial at this juncture. That’s why it’s time to start working on a new global Health Architecture. Achieving equal access to vaccines and unhindered treatment of Covid-19 for the benefit of global public health are key components in building this new Health Architecture of tomorrow,” Mitsotakis said.

He added: “Since its inception, the UN has helped the world overcome challenges that, otherwise, individual Member States, no matter how powerful, could never face on their own. This remains true as new challenges have emerged and new issues are shaping the global reality.”