The Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs explains that “supporting these countries is not only a moral imperative and an act of solidarity but also an instrument of preventive diplomacy”.
“The pandemic is a global threat that requires a global response necessarily. Helping the health systems of fragile countries and contributing to research, development and distribution of an effective Covid-19 vaccine in all countries in the world, without leaving anyone behind, especially in Africa, means first of all minimizing the risks of a return contagion”. This was stated in an interview with AGI by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Emanuela Del Re.
Africa represents “the first frontier in the global fight against the new coronavirus” and it is “fundamental to give a health response to the pandemic in the Continent. It is one of the main areas of international cooperation, focused above all on supporting countries with particularly fragile health systems,” Ms Del Re continues. “These are responses to the emergency with timely interventions to prevent, contain, combat and treat the Covid-19 disease, but also to find long-term solutions to the crisis.
“In the first dramatic weeks of the epidemic’s development in Italy we have sadly ascertained how the lack of cooperation between States and effective coordination at EU level has delayed or weakened the management of the emergency,” she explains. “On the economic and social level, the global lockdown, the blockage of food distribution chains, the volatility of raw materials prices risks having a very serious impact on some countries.
Helping these countries is not only a moral imperative and an act of solidarity but also an instrument of preventive diplomacy to stem the risk of political instability, security problems and the resurgence of illegal migratory flows”, Ms Del Re confirms.
“Our concern is linked not only to the risk of a wave of return of the pandemic in Europe, which can be concretised with the resurgence of irregular flows to our continent, but also to the possibility that the contagion could spread to Africa. An exponential increase in the number of infected people would put the health structures of the Continent in serious difficulty”, as stressed again by the Deputy Minister.