Azerbaijani leader appeals to developed countries and donor organizations

"Azerbaijan has always propagated the importance of demonstrating a committed global solidarity to overcome the pandemic. In its capacity, as the chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijan has initiated a number of global initiatives, in particular, the holding of the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in May 2020 and convening the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly at the level of the heads of state and government in December 2020 which was supported by more than 150 States," President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at the closing ceremony of 74th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) on "Ending this pandemic, preventing the next: building together a healthier, safer and fairer world" held in a video format on May 31, on the invitation of WHO's General Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Report informs that President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan has made voluntary financial contributions to the World Health Organization in the amount of $10 million and provided humanitarian and financial assistance to more than 30 countries with regard to coronavirus.

"Azerbaijan publicly condemned actions of some countries which purchase several times more vaccines than their actual needs and deprive developing countries from protecting their populations. The persisting "vaccine nationalism" and deepening inequality in access to vaccines between developing and developed countries are disturbing. According to international reports, so far, more than 82 percent of the world's vaccine doses have been purchased by wealthy countries, while only 0.3 percent have gone to low-income countries.

"To address this challenge, Azerbaijan, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, initiated a resolution on ensuring equitable, universal access for all countries to vaccines in the UN Human Rights Council, which was unanimously adopted this March.

"We strongly encourage developed countries and international donor organizations to support developing, in particular, least developed countries to this end," the head of state said.