Editorial
International Cooperation and Solidarity
- a key to address any global crisis
W
e all entered the New Year 2020 with ambitious plans and hopes, as it marked the beginning of a new decade. This year, Vietnam is assuming a dual role as the Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a non-permanent member of the United National Security Council (UNSC). Norway is going to celebrate the fifth anniversary of our sectoral dialogue partnership with ASEAN and is seeking a seat on the UNSC 2021-22. Then suddenly appeared the coronavirus.
Leave no one behind!
For three months, this tiny virus has turned the world upside down and caused an unprecedented global crisis. It has freezed international travel, closed borders, paused economic activities and confined people all over the world to their homes. As now, it has hit almost every country be it poor, developing or developed, all segments of our society, infecting over two million people and claiming over 100,000 deaths. Every country is struggling to control and prevent the virus from spreading. We also know that the most vulnerable in our societies, the elderly, the sick, the migrants, the disabled and the poor are at a heightened risk during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the UN Secretary General, “the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the most dangerous challenges this world has faced in our lifetime. It is above all a human crisis with severe health and socio-economic consequences”. However, the coronavirus has really shown us that the world is interconnected in all aspects, health wise,
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6 ScandAsia • May 2020
socially, economically, that we need to act together. Never before has so much importance been attached to international cooperation and solidarity.
Look to Vietnam, Learn from Vietnam
As Norway’s Ambassador to Vietnam, I am ver y impressed with what the Government of Vietnam has done so far to combat the coronavirus nationally, regionally and internationally. Since the very early stage, Vietnam has proactively taken strong actions to isolate and prevent the virus from spreading through information campaigns, medical and administrative measures, such as tracing and testing of people, quarantine arrangements, closing of schools and the most recent measure of social distancing. These measures seem to be effective as up to now among over 200 infected cases in Vietnam, there are no fatalities. Not only health professionals and caregivers who work days and nights to save people’s lives, but the whole Government of Vietnam seems to make every effort to control the pandemic and to support the affected people and businesses in the spirit of “leave no one behind”. The pandemic is of course challenging Vietnam’s ambitious plans for its ASEAN Chairmanship. However, from what I see, Vietnam has turned the challenge into opportunity. The theme of ASEAN 2020 “Cohesive and Responsive” is reflected in the early Chairman’s Statement on ASEAN Collective Response to the Outbreak of Covid-19. Vietnam has been actively sharing information and encouraging cooperation regarding Covid-19 within the bloc, and just recently took initiative in holding
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