Many World Leaders Call For Treaty On Future Pandemics

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta are among about two dozen world leaders who have signed onto a letter calling for an international agreement to "dispel the temptations of isolationism and nationalism," as part of an effort to prepare for future pandemics.

However, given a lack of international coordination that has beset the current coronavirus pandemic and an ongoing tussle over vaccine deliveries to combat COVID-19, whether such a treaty could be reached or adhered to is an open question.

In the letter published Tuesday in newspapers around the world, the leaders — which include others in Europe, Africa and Asia and World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — called COVID-19 the biggest global challenge since the 1940s. It said an international settlement similar to the one that ended World War II was needed to address the problem.

"[F]ollowing the devastation of two world wars, political leaders came together to forge the multilateral system," the leaders wrote in the letter that appeared in the U.K.'s The Telegraph, Le Monde in France and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Germany, among others.