Britain seeks UN backing for poor country vaccines

Britain has circulated a draft resolution to members of the UN Security Council calling on rich countries to donate doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to poorer and war-torn states.

The resolution, submitted on Thursday to the other 14 members of the Security Council, “emphasises the need for solidarity, equity, and efficacy and invites donation of vaccine doses from developed economies to low and middle-income countries and other countries in need.”

The draft resolution was announced earlier by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab during a session of the Security Council, and estimates that around 160 million people worldwide are living in conflict zones or unstable circumstances that put them at risk of not receiving a vaccination.

Last year, it took the Security Council, stalemated by Chinese-US rivalry, three months to adopt its one and only resolution to date on the pandemic, which called upon warring factions to halt operations to allow for a vaccine to be distributed.

London hopes its resolution will be adopted in the coming week, but Russia could be difficult to convince after saying this week that the issue of vaccines did not fall within the ambit of the Security Council.