Published 15:50 IST, April 17th 2020
Dominic Raab states 'UK cannot continue usual business' with China post Coronavirus
Raab has stated that the country will not be returning to usual business with China after the coronavirus pandemic after the origins of the virus isn't known
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UK's Dominic Raab has stated that the country will not be returning to usual business with China after the coronavirus pandemic after the origins of the virus is not made known. He also called for an international investigation.
Pressure on China grows
Today the G7 agreed:
— Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) April 16, 2020
✅🌍cooperation is vital for the discovery of a vaccine
✅the 🇬🇧 supports G7 action to support vulnerable countries
✅we must protect free trade & keep our supply chains open
✅we must work together to bring our people home pic.twitter.com/hAgzmxhDtR
"I think there absolutely needs to be a very, very deep dive after the event review of the lessons - including of the outbreak of the virus - and I don't think we can flinch from that at all, it needs to be driven by the science," he said at the daily press briefing.
Regarding trade and bilateral relations, he said, "But there is no doubt we can't have business as usual after this crisis, and we will have to ask the hard questions about how it came about and how it couldn't have been stopped earlier."
China is coming under increasing pressure from across the globe and especially by US, UK, and France regarding the origin of the virus which has infected 21,58,033 people and has claimed 144221 deaths across the globe.
Earlier this week, President Trump stalled USA's funding of the WHO after accusing the world body of hiding numbers and not informing the regarding the threat of the virus in advance. He also claimed that WHO had sided with China regarding the grave threat that it posed.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said that the Chinese government "needs to come clean" about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic which has sickened or killed millions across the globe. Speaking on Fox News, Pompeo said Beijing "needs to be accountable. They have to explain what happened and why it is the case that that information wasn't made more broadly available."
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron questioned China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and stated that there are things that have happened that the world does not know about. "Let's not be so naive as to say it's been much better at handling this. We don't know. There are clearly things that have happened that we don't know about."
15:50 IST, April 17th 2020