Xi's contribution to G20 part of a long-term vision - expert

BRUSSELS -- President Xi Jinping's contribution to the Group of 20 is part of a long-term vision of "a fairer, more united, more effective and more sustainable world order," Pierre Defraigne, executive director of the Madariaga-College of Europe Foundation, told Xinhua in an interview.

As the world is facing an unprecedented health crisis due to COVID-19, the Chinese president called for concerted efforts in fighting the pandemic at the 15th G20 summit held by Saudi Arabia via video conference on Nov 21-22.

"We should speed up action and support the World Health Organization (WHO) in mobilizing and consolidating resources and distributing vaccines fairly and efficiently," Xi said.

China stands ready to step up cooperation with other countries on research and development, production and distribution of vaccines for COVID-19, Xi said.

"I believe that President Xi's speech is part of a responsible choice of a great nation, which has shown a lot of credit for its actions in the world," Defraigne said.

Also, "China has a production capacity that is very valuable in the fight against coronavirus," which has been proved during a time when the world is in urgent need of medical supplies against COVID-19, Defraigne said,

Therefore, the valuable capacity should be presented in vaccines as well, Defraigne added.

What's more, "we must stop making political issues an obstacle to international cooperation, which is now a matter of life and death for humanity facing COVID-19, for the planet facing climate change," Defraigne said.

China and Europe have a shared objective in working towards distributing vaccines to all continents of the world, starting with Africa, Defraigne said, who is also former Deputy Director General in the European Commission's Directorate General for Trade.

Besides, this health crisis has raised questions about the effectiveness of multilateralism.

"Today, the multilateral system is in a bad state, following the return to unilateralism by the United States, which resulted in its refusal to appoint judges to the World Trade Organization Appellate Body, its withdrawal from the WHO and the Paris Agreement," Defraigne said, calling for urgently-needed reforms to the multilateral system.

"The WTO must be given the capacity to act in the area of competition, because competition is the essence of a fair and effective system," said Defraigne, expressing his confidence that there is also a convergence between Europe and China that deserves to be discussed.

Strengthening a mutually beneficial cooperation between states will strengthen the multilateral system, which should be achieved through better dialogue and cooperation, Defraigne said.