Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has cautioned other countries against politicising the coronavirus pandemic and the actions of the World Health Organisation (WHO) during an online press conference. The minister added the data on the WHO's operations shows that the global health body has acted efficiently in fighting the coronavirus pandemic coordinating a global response to a new threat.
"I would caution against attempting to politicise the issue of the coronavirus [pandemic] - something that can be seen not only with regard to the WHO, but also with regard to accusations against certain countries. I would advise right now to focus on certain steps to stop the pandemic, its spread, and on minimising the damage it does, first and foremost to the health and lives of people”, Lavrov said.
Lavrov further stated that many international bodies, such as the G20, BRICS, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Eurasian Economic Union, will have to re-evaluate their activities after the coronavirus pandemic ends. The minister separately noted that Moscow will review any US requests for more medical equipment and protective gear to fight the pandemic and stressed that this topic was covered in a telephone call between the Russian and American presidents.
Russia earlier sent a plane loaded with medical equipment and protective gear to the US to help it fight the coronavirus outbreak. The help came as US officials and mainstream media, along with some western allies, accused Russia and China of spreading "fake news" about the coronavirus pandemic - something that Moscow and Beijing vehemently denied.
US President Donald Trump additionally accused the WHO of obscuring the real number of infections and fatalities from the coronavirus in China, while revealing the full extent of the pandemic in other countries. The president called the global health body "China-oriented" and promised to pull the plug on American payments to the organisation. The WHO itself denied misreporting China's statistics and said it regretted the US decision to halt its funding.
Strategic Talks With US on Partial Pause
The Russian foreign minister also shared that Moscow and Washington are planning to continue talks on strategic stability noting that the US has already showed interest in them.
"[US Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo called me couple of weeks ago. I want to discuss this matter with him via a telephone talk in the coming days. [Pompeo] touched upon the issue of arms control and strategic stability in general [during his call]. We welcome the interest of our American partners in this topic as we have long urged them to work on these issues more actively", Lavrov said.
Lavrov noted, however, that some issues regarding global strategic stability will have to be discussed with the US after the coronavirus pandemic is over. The minister separately added that one of the issues Russia is ready to discuss with the US is the development of hypersonic weapons. Moscow recently added several such weapons to its arsenal, while the US is actively working on their own, as well as on the defences against such weaponry.