'Korea-led' UN Health Security Friendly Group Makes First Joint Statement in Security Council Open Debate... Calls for Joint COVID-19 Response

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The "UN Health Security Friends Group," launched under South Korea's leadership, issued a joint statement as a group on the occasion of the UN Security Council's high-level open virtual debate held on the 2nd (local time) under the theme "International Peace and Security Maintenance: Implications of COVID-19."

Through a written joint statement, the Friends Group defined the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) as a threat to international peace and security and welcomed the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2532. They emphasized the need to support the UN Secretary-General's call for a global ceasefire and the cessation of military threats amid the COVID-19 situation, the importance of a joint response based on multilateralism and solidarity, the protection of vulnerable groups such as women and children, the central role of the UN in epidemic response, and the significance of UN peace operations.

This is the Friends Group's first joint statement at a UN meeting. It delivered a unified voice of the entire group on the international community's response to COVID-19, laying the foundation for proactive participation in future UN-level discussions on international health cooperation. South Korea proposed this Security Council joint statement and played a leading role throughout the entire process, including drafting and consultation.

The Security Council high-level open debate was chaired by Heiko Maas, Foreign Minister of Germany, the Security Council President for this month, with briefings by UN Secretary-General Ant?nio Guterres and Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

A Foreign Ministry official explained, "As a proposing country and co-chair of the Friends Group, our government plans to continue leading discussions within the group and contribute to UN-level solidarity and cooperation to address international health security challenges such as COVID-19 through various activities, including joint statements at UN meetings and side events for health security discussions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.