President Alberto Fernández held an online videoconference meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Friday, during which both leaders agreed that Covid-19 vaccines should be treated as a “universal public good.”
During a near hour-long conversation held via Zoom, the duo said that vaccines coming onto the market to tackle the novel coronavirus should not be restricted by intellectual property rules, especially in so-called ‘developing’ nations.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the presidents discussed the epidemiological situation facing their respective nations, restrictions imposed to tackle the spread of Covid-19, and the roll-out of their mass vaccination programmes.
The two leaders agreed "on the need to increase vaccine production, as a universal good without intellectual property, in order to guarantee their access to developing countries, according to a statement.
Macron, meanwhile, pledged his support for Argentina’s attempts to renegotiate its US$44-billion debt with the International Monetary Fund. In turn, Fernández thanked the French leader for his support on debt restructuring efforts, saying the support provided by France durings the government’s talks with private creditors was “very important.”
The French president also congratulated Argentina on the recent passage of its bill to legalise abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
"I want to congratulate you because for us it is something very important," stressed Macron, extending an invitation to his peer to attend the next United Nations-backed Generation Equality Forum, which is due to take place in Paris later this year.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL/AFP
Comments