UN Security Council to
hold first coronavirus talks Thursday: diplomats
The UN Security Council will
hold its first meeting on the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, after weeks of
divisions among its five permanent members, diplomats said Monday.
Last week, exasperated by the back-and-forth that has paralyzed
the council, including between China and the United States, nine of the 10
non-permanent members formally requested a meeting featuring a presentation by
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"Meeting confirmed for Thursday," one diplomat told
AFP on condition of anonymity. It was to be held behind closed doors at 3:00 pm
(1900 GMT).
It s not yet clear what form the meeting will take, or what
could be accomplished: will the member nations show unity in the fact of a
global crisis and a willingness to cooperate, or proceed with a settling of
scores?
Last week, the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a
resolution calling for "international cooperation" and
"multilateralism" in the fight against COVID-19 -- the first text to
come out of the world body since the outbreak began.
Russia has tried to oppose the text, but only four other
countries backed its parallel draft.
The United States has long demanded that any meeting or text
specify that the virus first emerged in China, to Beijing s consternation.
Diplomats said Monday that opposition to holding a council
meeting was coming from the Chinese and the Russians.
Moscow and Beijing say they only believe the council should
consider the pandemic when they are talking about a country experiencing
conflict, the diplomats said.
Several sources also said France was hesitating about the need
for talks.
Paris has been trying since last week to get the council s
five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the US -- to sit
down for a videoconference to settle their differences.
Sources said it would prefer that call take place before any
full gathering of the council s 15 member nations.
The nine countries that requested the meeting are Germany, which
spearheaded the effort, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Indonesia,
Niger, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam.
The final non-permanent member, South Africa, did not support
the move, saying the council s remit was peace and security, not health
and economic issues.
For those nine countries, it s "really irresponsible
to block" a council meeting and to "paralyze" the institution
since the start of the crisis, a diplomat from one of them said.