LONDON (UK) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that world powers should zero in on a global treaty on pandemics to make sure their is proper transparency after the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Johnson said he would be keen to agree a global treaty on pandemics where there would be sharing of data from countries, amid British and US concern over World Health Organization (WHO) mission given access to China.
When asked about any action he was expecting to improve transparency, Johnson said: “I think what the world needs to see is a general agreement on how we track data surrounding zoonotic pandemics… and we want a joint agreement on transparency.”
“I think one of the attractive ideas that we have seen in the last few months has been a proposal for a global treaty on pandemics, so that signatory countries make sure that they contribute all the data they have and we are able to get to the bottom of what’s happened and stop it happening again,” he said at a news conference.
“That is the sensible thing to do.”
European Council President, Charles Michel, wrote on Twitter that he welcomed “the support of @BorisJohnson to work together on a pandemic treaty in order to improve global preparedness, resilience and recovery.”
As part of Britain’s presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations, Johnson wants to take a lead with regard to steps taken, with a global approach in mind about pandemics, including an early warning system.
Johnson said: “I think it’s fairly obvious that most of the evidence seems to point to the disease having originated in Wuhan.”
“Therefore I think we all need to see as much as we possibly can about how that might have happened, the zoonotic questions that people are asking. I think we need as much data as possible,” he said.
