Prosur backs Chile’s initiative to promote a global treaty on pandemics

In the context of the fifth extraordinary meeting of the Presidents in the Forum for the Progress and Development of South America (Prosur), aimed at coordinating the regional efforts against COVID-19, Foreign Affairs Minister Andrés Allamand highlighted that the block “unanimously backed Chile’s initiative of promoting a global treaty on pandemics.”

“Today, it is clear that the international architecture is too weak to address pandemics: there are no early warning mechanisms when outbreaks occur, and there are no coordination mechanisms for securing vaccines, distributing them, organizing networks and logistics, as well as a number of other issues,” said the Foreign Affairs Minister at a press conference held jointly with Health Minister Enrique Paris after attending the meeting with President Sebastián Piñera.

“It is therefore very important that Prosur has backed this initiative promoted by the Chilean government,” added the Foreign Affairs Minister. The idea of establishing a legally binding international treaty on pandemic preparation and response was also promoted by Minister Allamand in the recent ministerial meeting of the Alliance for Multilateralism, where he called on the more than 60 participating countries to get involved.

In the Prosur meeting that convened the Presidents of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay and Peru, the leaders also discussed how to funnel efforts to coordinate the vaccination processes underway in Latin America.

Minister Paris said, “The President requested that all Prosur countries work in conjunction to face the pandemic, as stated by Foreign Affairs Minister Allamand, and I hope that this will be a well-organized and well-developed process as we move forward, not only for this pandemic. The President also insisted that as Prosur countries we must face the vaccination process as a whole, helping one another.”

Meanwhile, President Piñera expressed that in future meetings, Chile would like to concretely address migration issues that concern the region, as well as organized crime and illegal human trafficking.