The Royal Government of Cambodia supports the “Draft Targets”, which is the key outcome of this Global COVID-19 Summit hosted on Sept. 22 by the President of the United States of America H.E. Joe Biden under the theme “Ending the Pandemic and Building Back Better”, according to Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen’s written address to the summit.

“The global outbreak of COVID-19 is a common crisis. Hence, Cambodia agrees with the view that ‘no one country can stop this alone. We need to work together, support each another, and remember that no one is safe until all of us are safe.’ At the same time, I would like to emphasise that ‘we must jointly stop this crisis to the best of our abilities and capacities in a sincere, responsible and humanitarian manner without any hidden political agenda’. In this regard, Cambodia is pleased to join the international community in committing to the ‘Draft Targets’, which is the key outcome of this Global COVID-19 Summit,” he underlined.

In fact, as of the third quarter of 2021, the situation of COVID-19 still remains highly uncertain, with the risk of new waves of more virulent coronavirus variants, and disrupts general socio-economic activities. With the enthusiasm for the initiative to launch the “Draft Targets”, Cambodia would like to urge all participating countries to turn these “Draft Targets” into real and pragmatic actions. In addition, Cambodia is in the view that all countries must work together and unite in solidarity to realise this main goal, do not discriminate against races and political tendencies and avoid using the fight against COVID-19 as a political agenda or to serve one’s own political agendas, he added.

As vaccine is an essential good in saving lives, Cambodia welcomes the set target of vaccinating at least 70 percent of the world’s population. To achieve this target, Cambodia calls on all stakeholders to set all vaccines, recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), as a key global strategic good without discrimination against the types and sources of the vaccines, and as a public good with an affordable price that all countries have access to and can use them on demand. Furthermore, Cambodia also calls on all governments to enable the production of COVID-19 vaccines widely in potential countries and regions, through financing and providing incentives for investments in the production of vaccines. At the same time, Cambodia would like to appeal to all governments not to hoard vaccine for their own countries or keep the vaccines they produce only for themselves, the Premier stressed.

Globally, as of 5:06pm CEST, Sept. 22 2021, there have been 229,373,963 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4,705,111 deaths, reported to WHO. As of Sept. 19, 2021, a total of 5,776,127,976 vaccine doses have been administered, according to WHO’s record.