China's ambassador to the United Nations on Friday called on all countries to strengthen solidarity and achieve vaccine equity at an early date to overcome the "vaccine nationalism" that has left many developing nations short of COVID-19 vaccines.

In a joint statement made on behalf of 78 countries, including Mexico, Pakistan and South Africa, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, noted that vaccines are a powerful weapon against viruses. However, as "a global public good", their equity in terms of distribution is "far from being reached", and their accessibility and affordability "need to be solved urgently".

Everyone is entitled to the right of life and health, he said. The ambassador called on all countries to actively promote the fair and rational distribution of vaccines across the globe, to ensure that no country or individual is left behind, and to jointly defeat the pandemic at an early date.

Developing countries need to be prioritized in vaccine distribution. It's important to promote the equitable distribution of vaccines in developing countries as soon as possible, he said.

The envoy called on "capable vaccine-producing countries" to "translate their commitments into actions" as soon as possible and to actively provide vaccine support to developing countries in "a timely and adequate" manner through bilateral and multilateral channels.

Financial support

Zhang also urged international organizations to provide financial support to developing countries to procure doses and to strengthen their production capacity for vaccines. He also called on the World Trade Organization to make a decision on the waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible.

The world is still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the recently concluded General Debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, many leaders said that Western countries are stockpiling a large number of vaccines, which has significantly exacerbated vaccine inequity and created a man-made "immunization gap", Zhang said.

They called for vaccines to be used as a global public good to ensure that doses are accessible and affordable. The UN chief has called for accelerating the fair distribution of vaccines to ensure that no country is left behind. The director-general of the World Health Organization has also urged that priority be given to vaccinating the people most at risk around the world, Zhang said.