BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 16
Trend:
We reiterate our call upon developed countries and international donor organizations with respect to providing necessary financial assistance to developing, in particular, least developed countries, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said delivering a speech at the Second Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Science and Technology held online, Trend reports.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for the world," the president said. "In its capacity, as the chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijan initiated and successfully held the NAM Summit in response to coronavirus in May 2020. We also initiated the holding of the Special Session of the UN General Assembly at the level of the heads of state and government in December 2020."
"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, including a number of OIC Member States with respect to coronavirus," the president said.
"We remain deeply concerned by the “vaccine nationalism” and inequality in access to vaccines between developing and developed countries," the president said. "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."
"We reiterate our call upon developed countries and international donor organizations with respect to providing necessary financial assistance to developing, in particular, least developed countries," the president said.