New Delhi: After the recently held first of its kind virtual extraordinary G20 summit session, the formal Indian government statement said, "PM Modi called on the Leaders to help usher in a new globalization, for the collective well-being of humankind and have multilateral fora focus on promoting the shared interests of humanity."
Caught in the middle of a pandemic which has so far claimed nearly 27000 lives across the globe, the international community is struggling to assess and face the human and economic costs unleashed by the Corona Virus. The global economy has been disrupted even as questions are being asked of China’s role and the mandate of World Health Organisation.
"The Trump administration's 'America First' instinct has seen it attempt to source a vaccine for the American people alone from Germany, to cancel pharmaceutical imports from China and to stymie global consensus on the response by insisting on the divisive 'Wuhan virus' formula at the G-7 and, currently, at the UN Security Council," wrote Samir Saran and Shashi Tharoor, co-authors of the new book 'The New World Disorder & the Indian Imperative' in an article in the Indian Express last week.
"Beijing, meanwhile, has got away with letting the virus loose, handling it initially in an opaque manner, and manipulating the institutional architecture that should have responded to it," Saran and Tharoor wrote further in the article.
Questions arise if Corona Virus can be called the #WuhanVirus? Will China eventually be held accountable for its handling of the pandemic? Will Covid-19 lead to a new disrupted global order? How is India’s response domestically as well as vis-a-vis its citizens overseas being viewed globally? Will the World Health Organisation witness a mandate transformation? And through groupings like G7, SAARC, G20 among others, Will Covid 19 lead to revival of multilateralism or Will borders close down further in the post Corona era?
