VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Bogor (VOI News) - President Joko Widodo attended the Non-Aligned Movement Virtual Summit, Monday (04/05) night at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java. The Non-Aligned Summit was held under the leadership of Azerbaijan and was followed by 39 countries of the Non-Aligned Movement. The NAM Summit this time raised the theme of United Against Covid-19 or Unity Against Covid-19. In addition to being followed by the Non-Aligned Movement countries, the Summit was also attended by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Director-General of WHO to the Chairperson of the African Union Commission or Chairperson of African Union Committee. During the summit, President Joko Widodo conveyed the importance of strengthening political solidarity among the Non-Aligned Movement countries. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, after accompanying the President, said that President Joko Widodo reminded NAM countries to focus energy and time to deal with the Covid-19 Pandemic.

“The point is not to get stuck in things that can sharpen differences and weaken cooperation,” said Retno Marsudi.

In addition, President Joko Widodo also said that the political solidarity of the Non-Aligned Movement countries could be translated into concrete forms of cooperation in dealing with a pandemic. According to Reto Marsudi, this concrete collaboration was directed at handling pandemics, including access to medicines and vaccines.

“The priority of developing countries today is fair and timely access to Covid-19 medicines and vaccines at affordable prices. Flexibility is also needed in the application of patent regimes and intellectual property rights. That was also emphasized by the President,” Retno Marsudi added.

Furthermore, President Joko Widodo also stressed the importance of strengthening global partnerships for developing countries. According to Retno, the President underlined the importance of fulfilling commitments on development and humanitarian assistance, including debt relief.

“Debt payment obligations of developing countries can be transferred to financing for handling Covid-19 or called Debt Swap for Covid-19 from official creditors. This is important to say because there are so many developing countries, especially the least developed countries that have difficulties in handling Covid-19,” Retno Marsudi said.

Retno Marsudi added that President Joko Widodo in the Non-Aligned Movement Virtual Summit summit also stressed the importance of developing countries to be a solution for improving global health governance. This is so that developing countries can increase their readiness to prevent and deal with a pandemic in the future. (VOI/Ndy/AHM)