UNSC responded 'late' to Covid-19 pandemic – Turkish FM

The UN held its first meeting last week, during which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said engagement of the Security Council will be "critical" to mitigate peace and security implications of the pandemic.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said UN Security Council met to discuss the coronavirus pandemic almost four months after the outbreak.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said UN Security Council met to discuss the coronavirus pandemic almost four months after the outbreak.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday criticised the UN Security Council for being late to respond to the coronavirus pandemic that has infected nearly two million people worldwide.

"Everybody agrees that the Security Council has been late to respond to the Covid-19. They met to discuss the pandemic almost four months after the outbreak," said Cavusoglu at a virtual conference held by the Atlantic Council in Turkey and the Turkish Heritage Organization.

"This is unbelievable, outrageous," said the top diplomat.

The virus known as Covid-19 originated in Wuhan, China in December and has infected more than 1.94 million and killed over 123,300 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The UN, however, held its first meeting last week, during which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said engagement of the Security Council will be "critical" to mitigate peace and security implications of the pandemic.

Cavusoglu broadened his criticism and said the Security Council failed to "properly" address other international conflicts and cited "Syria is only one of them."

"Look at Yemen, Libya and others. Its structure needs to be adapted to global challenges as well. Turkey is a strong advocate of Security Council reform as President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan repeatedly underlined the world is bigger than five," he added.

"We must obviously admit that the UN Security Council is neither inclusive nor representative," he said. "We don't have a better tool at the hand at the moment.

"We should do our best to support it but we should actually intensify our efforts to reform UN Security Council," he concluded.

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