The Week in Multilateralism

March 5, 2021

• The head of the World Health Organization has thrown his weight behind loosening intellectual property rules to accelerate the spread of covid vaccines and treatments. Writing in the Guardian, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the case for pulling on all available policy levers:

  Whether it’s dose sharing, tech transfer or voluntary licensing, as the WHO’s own Covid-19 Technology Access Pool initiative encourages, or waiving intellectual property rights, as South Africa and India have suggested, we need to pull out all the stops. Flexibilities in trade regulations exist for emergencies, and surely a global pandemic, which has forced many societies to shut down and caused so much harm to business – both large and small – qualifies. We need to be on a war footing, and it’s important to be clear about what is needed.

  As the WHO chief urged action in multiple realms, the organization appeared to be tangled up on a matter squarely within its jurisdiction—the investigation into the pandemic’s origins. The Wall Street Journal reported on confusion within the organization about how to handle the inquiry:

  A World Health Organization team investigating the origins of Covid-19 is planning to scrap an interim report on its recent mission to China amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington over the investigation and an appeal from one international group of scientists for a new probe.

  The group of two dozen scientists is calling in an open letter on Thursday for a new international inquiry. They say the WHO team that last month completed a mission to Wuhan—the Chinese city where the first known cases were found—had insufficient access to adequately investigate possible sources of the new coronavirus, including whether it slipped from a laboratory.

• The new director general of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has wasted no time in outlining priorities for the organization she leads. Countering export restrictions on covid vaccines and treatments comes first, but she has also emphasized the importance of negotiations to eliminate fishing subsidies:

  We must contribute to ocean sustainability by agreeing to eliminate harmful fisheries subsidies which lead to too many vessels chasing too few fish. A robust deal will signal that the WTO is back and that it can conclude a multilateral agreement vital for future generations. The WTO cannot afford to stumble over this; the negotiations have been going on for 20 years. This is far too long. Absent an agreement, there will be no fish left over which to argue.

• Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, made it official this week: her office has initiated an investigation into the situation in Palestine, including alleged crimes by Palestinians and Israelis. Her announcement followed a decision by three ICC judges clarifying her jurisdiction to investigate. In her statement, Bensouda recognized the strong reactions to the court’s involvement in the dispute and pledged deliberation and impartiality:

  [M]y office will take the same principled, non-partisan, approach that it has adopted in all situations over which its jurisdiction is seized. We have no agenda other than to meet our statutory duties under the Rome Statute with professional integrity.

  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded almost immediately by criticizing the prosecutor’s decision:

  The ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter. Israel is not a party to the ICC and has not consented to the Court’s jurisdiction, and we have serious concerns about the ICC’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel.

• Foreign ministers from the ASEAN nations met virtually this week to consider the bloc’s stance on Myanmar. While several foreign ministers condemned the junta and called for a restoration of democracy, the bloc’s overall stance was more restrained. Aaron Connelly examined the stakes for ASEAN as it struggles to forge a policy on the crisis. He pointed out that an ASEAN that accepts the junta would be harder for Western countries to engage with:

  At the very least, American and European engagement with ASEAN is likely to be limited or downgraded, and could remain so until the result of the coup is reversed. The coup is thus the most serious threat to ASEAN centrality that the organisation has faced since its membership and role expanded following the Cold War. How the organisation handles that challenge, starting at a special meeting on 2 March, will have considerable consequences for regional diplomacy for years to come.

• The heads of state of the “Quad” countries—Australia, India, Japan, and the United States—will reportedly meet for a virtual summit later this month. Australia’s prime minister confirmed that a meeting is in the works. Via The Diplomat:

  Speaking to reporters on March 5, [Scott] Morrison said that the four-nation grouping, which was resuscitated in 2017, is “very central” to both Australia’s and the United States’ thinking about the Indo-Pacific.

• European representatives to the World Bank have called for the organization to eliminate support for all coal and oil projects. Reuters reported on a letter sent by several European executive directors to the Bank’s leadership:

  “We ... think the Bank should now go further and also exclude all coal- and oil-related investments, and further outline a policy on gradually phasing out gas power generation to only invest in gas in exceptional circumstances,” the European officials wrote in the letter, excerpts of which were seen by Reuters.

  The officials took note of the World Bank’s $620 million investment in a multibillion-dollar liquified natural gas project in Mozambique approved by the Bank’s board in January, but did not call for its cancellation, one of the sources said.

• Briefly noted:

  • The advocacy group Human Rights Watch says the time has come for a female United Nations Secretary General.

  • European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen spoke with President Biden this week and pledged to suspend tariffs related to a longstanding trade dispute.

  • The Organization of American States is sending an electoral observation mission to Bolivia.

  • Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has signed up to write his autobiography.

  • Israel announced that it would provide vaccines for the multinational observer force on the Sinai peninsula.