Nearly 100 world leaders to speak at UN session on COVID-19

Nearly 100 world leers and several dozen ministers are slated to speak at U.N. General Assembly's special session starting Thursday on response to COVID-19 and best path to recovery from pandemic which has claimed 1.5 million lives, shattered ecomies, and left tens of millions of people unemployed in countries rich and poor.

Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said when he took reins of 193-member world body in September that it would have been better to hold high-level meeting in June.

neless, he said Wednesday it "provides a historic moment for us to come toger to beat COVID-19."

"With news of multiple vaccines on cusp of approval, and with trillions of dollars flowing into global recovery efforts, international community has a unique opportunity to do this right, he said.

world is looking to U.N. for leership. This is a test for multilateralism.

When financial markets collapsed and world faced its last great crisis in 2008, major powers worked toger to restore global ecomy, but COVID-19 pandemic has been striking for opposite response: leer, united action to stop pandemic that has circled globe.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent a letter to leers of Group of 20, world's richest nations responsible for 80 percent of global ecomy ahe of ir summit in late March as COVID-19 was starting its killing spree urging that y opt a wartime plan and cooperate on an international response to suppress coronavirus. But re was response.

two-day special session will t be raising money to finance vaccine immunizations or taking any political action, and re will be final declaration, just a summary document from Bozkir.

real point of this special is to galvanize concrete action to approach our response to COVID-19 in a multilateral and collective way, General Assembly spokesman Brenden Varma said Wednesday.

He ded that re are currently many responses to pandemic, but what's needed w is to bring toger all countries, U.N. actors, private sector and vaccine developers.

Leers and ministers from over 140 countries will deliver pre-recorded speeches on Thursday after an in-person opening in General Assembly including speeches by Bozkir and Guterres.

Among leers slated to dress session are French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and European Union chief Charles Michel. United States will be represented by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

Friday's session will focus on three virtual panels, first on U.N.'s response to COVID-19 and second on vaccines that will include representatives from producers BioNTech and Oxford University-AstraZeneca, and World Health Organization's ACT-Accelerator which is working to get vaccines to world's poorest people.

final panel is on recovery from COVID-19. WHO chief Tedros ham Ghebreyesus is expected to participate in all three panels.

Cana's U.N. deputy ambassor Louise Blais, who organized special session with Azerbaijan's Ambassor Yashar Aliev, said it will be first time that U.N. system is bringing key players toger to focus on COVID-19's myri impacts.

Countries around world are facing ir own internal impacts, but it's important that U.N. continue to vocate ... that this crisis impacts us all and solutions are global, she told Associated Press in an interview. So, we have to work toger in order to ensure that all of us get out of this, because until everyone does, one is really safe.

Blais said session is an important step and will focus on implementing three resolutions opted by General Assembly on COVID-29, especially wide-ranging measure approved in September.

special session comes at a critical time, Blais ted, because we w kw that re are a number of vaccines that have proven to be effective.

w, all eyes are on critical distribution of vaccines, she said, ding that this is expected to be a key m during special session and it's one where world is expecting us to work toger and make sure that we have an equitable distribution of vaccine globally.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said secretary-general Guterres will be focusing on need for all countries and people everywhere to have access to vaccines.

vaccine needs to be treated as a `global public good' and that will be basis of secretary-general's mess on Thursday, Dujarric said.

Im Credits: AP