ADDRESSING the 20th Heads of State meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization held through video conference, Prime Minister Imran Khan put forward a six point strategy to galvanize joint efforts including setting up a knowledge bank to counter second wave of Covid-19, policies to mitigate pandemic’s economic impact and declaring vaccine a source of global good. He termed exchange of knowledge among SCO countries significant to reduce the risks of virus, which he said continues to rage the world with high positive cases and death toll.
Indeed the SCO has emerged as an important forum. This vast region is home to almost forty-four percent of the world’s population. The SCO’s entire structure is also designed to generate multilateral partnerships to assist sovereign members in coordinating strategies and approaches to solving pressing international issues and meeting regional needs. It also provides an opportunity for member States to concentrate their efforts on common goals in accordance with the principles of voluntary cooperation and equitable distribution of responsibilities. In the present situation when the world is badly affected by the pandemic, the role of multilateral forums such as SCO assumes greater significance to create synergies and promote collaboration to meet such a global phenomenon. The PM’s call for coordinated efforts is very timely and the SCO member states must come together to jointly fight the pandemic. The proposals put forward by the PM should be given serious consideration for implementation as these will really help the member states better share their experience in diagnostics and treatment, accelerate the development of drugs and vaccines, minimize health and life damage and mitigate economic impact. Hence, we expect that the SCO will take the practical steps towards that end which, in fact, will be a service to the whole humanity. In addition, the efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) should be fully supported as it is the only body which can mobilize the necessary resources and coordinate response to contain the threat of Covid-19 to public health in all countries.
