NEW DELHI: BRICS on Tuesday expanded their service to get a temporary international waiver on patent coverage for Covid-19 vaccines and reiterated the demand for consumption of vaccine dosages, transfer of technologies, growth of local production capabilities and distribution chains for medical goods.
The foreign ministers of all BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) held a meeting Tuesday and stressed that the necessity to promote projects aimed at guaranteeing timely, economical, and fair access to, in addition to the supply of diagnostics, therapeutics, medications and vaccines.
In October this past year, both India and South Africa, together with 57 members of WTO suggested a waiver from specific provisions of this Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for avoidance, containment, and treatment for Covid-19.
The WTO Agreement on TRIPS is a more comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property.
The meeting was chaired by External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar via video conferencing.
“The Ministers reaffirmed the necessity to utilize all applicable steps throughout the pandemic, for example encouraging continuing concern in WTO to a Covid-19 vaccine Intellectual Property Rights waiver as well as using flexibilities of the TRIPS agreement and the Doha Declaration on TRIPS Agreement and Public Health,” that the BRICS foreign ministers said in a joint announcement.
The assembly had been attended by Brazil Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Alberto Franco Franca,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, along with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor.
After the assembly, the ministers issued a 28-point joint announcement on strengthening and reforming the multilateral system.
At the joint statement, the ministers noted the Covid-19 outbreak has, within the last year and a half, also established itself as among the most serious international challenges lately and really”powerful and agent” that a multilateralism is a vital tool for securing successful governance of things of daily life and encouraging the well-being of individuals and a sustainable future for Earth.
Acknowledging the numerous accomplishments of the UN and its related structure, the ministers, but said that the entire body’s continuing success and value would be decided by its capacity to adapt to the realities of the world today.
They also acknowledged the present interconnected foreign challenges ought to be addressed via a”reinvigorated and reformed” multilateral system.
The ministers emphasised the urgency of this revitalisation of the UN General Assembly in Order to improve its role and power in accordance with the UN Charter.
The member states also called for continuing efforts to strengthen the system of arms control, disarmament and also non-proliferation treaties and arrangements and also to maintain its integrity for preserving international stability and worldwide peace and safety.
They also emphasized further the requirement to keep the efficacy and efficiency in addition to the consensus-based temperament of the relevant multilateral instruments in the area of disarmament, non-proliferation and weapon management.
The ministers reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening and broadening the involvement of emerging markets and developing nations (EMDCs) at the global financial decision and norm-setting procedures, particularly in the wake of this Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition they found that multilateralism should encourage international politics, law, equity and justice, and mutual regard, directly to growth and also non-interference in internal affairs of any nation without any double standards.
BRICS ministers also praised India and South Africa because of their various current and recent conditions served at the UN Security Council and also as recognised that the candidacy of Brazil as a UN Security Council member to its 2022-2023 biennium.