The United Nations Security Council will hold a closed session on Thursday to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, the first time the powerful UN organ is holding a meeting on coronavirus that has killed more than 74,000 people and infected over 1.3 million globally.
Council President for the month of April, the Dominican Republic, said it has formally scheduled a closed video-teleconferencing (VTC) “regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the issues that fall under the UNSC mandate”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will participate in the session on Thursday afternoon as a briefer. It remains to be seen whether any press statement on the COVID-19 situation is issued after the meeting.
Last week, Special Envoy from Dominican Republic to UN Ambassador Jose Singer and President of Security Council for April said that a Council meeting on the coronavirus situation had been requested by five or six ambassadors and the Dominican Republic was working to schedule the discussion.
The Dominican Republic assumed the rotating presidency of the 15-nation Council for the month of April, taking the baton from permanent and veto-welding member China.
When asked by PTI if any resolution on COVID-19 is excepted when the Council meets to discuss the issue, Singer had said last week “we have not discussed the issue of a resolution… We are first expecting to hold that meeting, and then we’ll see how events play out”.
Discussion about this post