Britain will not join a global agreement to prevent and fight pandemics, which the World Health Organization is currently negotiating, if the final text violates the country's sovereignty in the field of health care, British Minister of State for Health Andrew Stevenson said yesterday, quoted by AFP and BTA.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, several WHO member countries have been trying for more than two years to reach an agreement to coordinate the prevention and fight against pandemics, but negotiations have stalled.
Countries disagree on issues such as access to and sharing of knowledge about pathogens or how each country contributes to increasing the countries' response capacity and preparedness for potential pandemics.
The World Health Assembly - the highest body of the WHO - will meet from May 27 to June 1 to take stock of what was achieved in the negotiations.
"We will endorse the agreement and the proposed amendments to the World Health Assembly and will only accept them if they are firmly in the UK's national interests," Stevenson told the British Parliament in response to a parliamentary question.
"Secondly, this government will only agree to measures that respect our national sovereignty," he added, stressing that in its current form the text being negotiated is "unacceptable.
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He specifically rejected the possibility that Britain would agree to donate up to a fifth of its vaccines in the event of a future pandemic, despite the country's "generosity".
"Companies can choose whether to donate vaccines, but that should be entirely their decision,", Stevenson said.