‘Political Color Should Not be Given to Wuhan Lab Issue’, China Appeals to SCO Foreign Ministers Meeting

Beijing : Foreign Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries have expressed serious concern over the dangerous spread of coronavirus infection. The foreign ministers of the SCO member states said that there needs to be coordinated and inclusive multilateral efforts under the United Nations in the fight against COVID-19. The Foreign Minister of eight member SCO countries including Foreign Minister S Jaishankar attended the meeting through video conference on Wednesday to discuss cooperation in dealing with COVID-19.

A joint statement issued at the end of the meeting said that there needs to be strong, coordinated and inclusive multilateral efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, in which the UN system plays a central role.

The ministers emphasized the SCO’s effective dialogue with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

To ensure biological safety in the region, the ministers considered accepting a comprehensive action plan of SCO member countries at the forthcoming conference of the SCO in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, amidst US pressure to allow the international community to visit the Wuhan laboratory to investigate the origin of the coronavirus, said, ‘We appeal to people around the world to reject attempts to give political color to this matter.’

The US continues to attack China on the issue of coronavirus. US National Security Advisor (NSA) Robert O’Brien says that in the last 20 years, China has given 5 epidemics. This sequence should be stopped. O’Brien said- SARS, avian flu, swine flu,  and corona virus came from China. However, he did not name the fifth crisis.

At the same time, a bill to ban China has been introduced in the US Parliament. The bill has been introduced in Parliament by a group of nine influential senators. The bill states that the US President should be allowed to impose sanctions on China if China does not provide complete information about the reasons behind the spread of the coronavirus infection and does not cooperate in controlling it.