On August 5, the first meeting of the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation was held via video links. President Xi Jinping addressed the meeting which was hosted by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
President Xi stressed that COVID-19 is still raging with flare-ups and mutations. Committed to building a global community of health for all, China is providing vaccines to the world, particularly developing countries, and is actively advancing cooperation on vaccine production. This is also in line with China's pledge of making COVID-19 vaccines a global public good. China will continue to do its best to help other developing countries cope with the virus.
President Xi announced that China will strive to provide two billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world throughout this year and 100 million US dollars to the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility, another major move to honor the commitment of making vaccines a global public good and also make new contributions to the global cooperation against COVID-19.
Wang Yi noted that inequitable distribution and unbalanced vaccination remain prominent challenges. The immunization gap deserves high attention from the international community. To secure a victory of this fight that bears on the future, we have no option but to stay united and work together. Wang Yi said that China has donated and is donating vaccines to more than 100 countries so far, and has exported more than 770 million doses of vaccines to over 60 countries, the most of any nation in the world.
In the face of COVID-19, China and Ethiopia have always been supporting each other, setting a shining example of China-Africa solidarity against COVID-19. China will continue to help Ethiopia cope with the virus through variety channels, and the number of vaccine doses China donated and is going to donate has reached 1 million. The upcoming batch of vaccines will arrive in Addis Ababa in August.
The number of infection and death cases continues to grow worldwide, mostly fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant. The international community must work together to overcome the challenges of the times. China is committed to promoting international vaccine cooperation, making vaccines a global public good and advancing its accessibility and affordability, especially to meet the needs of developing countries. China and Ethiopia are close partners sharing weal and woe together. And China stands ready to strengthen solidary with Ethiopia in combating the pandemic, and make its contributions to safeguarding Ethiopian people's health and well-being.