After proposing the video conference among the SAARC counties to coordinate efforts in combating the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now proposed a G20 initiative to fight the pandemic. This is confirmed by Australian prime minister Scott Morrison at a press conference. He also said that his government supports the idea, saying that an urgent meeting among finance ministers is also needed due to the economic impact of the Covid-19.
Australian PM @ScottMorrisonMP says @PMOIndia has asked for a G-20 link up to tackle #WuhanVirus . Says Australia supports it pic.twitter.com/SCJvW9qyxI
— Yusuf Unjhawala 🇮🇳 (@YusufDFI) March 15, 2020
The PM of Australia said, “one of the things I should mention that I spoke to Prime Minister Johnson about is when it comes to the G20, I am also aware that Prime Minister Modi is keen to organise a link up between all the G20 leaders. I think that’s, I think that’s a commendable initiative. Australia obviously supports that. I’ve communicated that. That’s a matter for the Saudi government who’s the President of the G20 this year. But the Prime Minister and I agreed last night that an even more urgent meeting that could be needed would be a further meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors. This is a health crisis, but it has very serious economic impacts. Those economic impacts have been clearly affecting financial markets. To date, that has been managed, but we’ve seen some highly volatile and quite disruptive activity on our financial markets”.
Prime Minister Modi also talked to British PM Boris Johnson and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on telephone and discussed the issue of Covid-19 pandemic, among other issues.
Earlier, PM Modi had proposed a video conference among leaders of the SAARRC countries, to discuss measures to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. The conference has been scheduled for 5 PM today, where he will lead the talk to chalk out a strong common strategy to fight COVID-19 in the region. Although most SAARC leaders have welcomed the move and are joining the conference, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is reportedly skipping the same.
