Quad pledges to strengthen global health architecture

Tokyo: The Quad leaders on Tuesday committed to getting ahead of the virus by strengthening the global health architecture, including by enhancing finance and bolstering ongoing science and technology cooperation.

On March 21 last year, the Quad countries announced 'the Quad vaccine partnership' at the first summit of the four-nation grouping. The Quad countries have led and will continue to lead global efforts for COVID-19 response, with a view to building better health security and strengthening health systems, according to a joint statement issued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australia's newly-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

"We commit to adapt our collective approaches to get ahead of the virus with a focus on preparing for new variants, and getting vaccines, tests, treatments, and other medical products to those at highest risk," it said. To date, the Quad partners have collectively pledged approximately USD 5.2 billion to the COVAX AMC, approximately 40 per cent of the total contributions from government donors, it said.