Indonesia seeks support for first UN resolution on virus

Sanitary surrender: A woman being sprayed with disinfectant inside a makeshift sterilisation chamber in Jakarta. — AP

AMID global calls for a multilateral presence and response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesia and a handful of other countries have drafted a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for global solidarity to fight it.

Indonesian delegate to the UN Dian Triansyah Djani said the draft resolution by Indonesia, Ghana, Liechtenstein, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland had support from almost 150 UN countries.

“It is time for all of us to hold hands and address this global pandemic. Together. No one is immune, ” he said on Twitter on Saturday.Stressing the importance of multilateralism and cooperation amid the coronavirus outbreak, the six countries, in the draft resolution, called for “intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat the pandemic, including by exchanging information, scientific knowledge and best practices, and by applying the relevant WHO (World Health Organization) recommended guidelines”.

Unlike those of the UN Security Council, any resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly’s 193 members are not binding but can have strong political messages if enough countries sign on.

The draft resolution would be the first response proposed by UN member countries in the General Assembly since the WHO described the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic on March 10.

On Saturday, acting as one of the UN General Assembly vice presidents, the Indonesian representative to the UN also participated in the first virtual meeting of General Assembly leadership to discuss its business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Foreign minister Retno Marsudi, in an op-ed published in The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, called for global solidarity and coordinated action against Covid-19.

“Difficult times can reveal people’s true colours, ” she said, stressing that nations must not allow themselves to be divided and calling for coordinated measures against it.The first multilateral coordination over the pandemic took place on Thursday, when leaders of G20 countries pledged to inject over US$5 trillion (RM21.6 trillion) into the global economy to limit job and income losses from the coronavirus in a virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia. — The Jakarta Post/ANN