US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo drew a sharp distinction between the ability of democracies and authoritarian countries to handle the current Covid-19 health crisis that is sweeping the globe, saying: “My firm belief is that the US and democracies will come out of this far better than authoritarian countries.”
He was speaking in an on the record conference call with editors and journalists from the Central and South Asian region on Thursday night, and his statement came in response to a query as to whether the crisis would result in the US ceding global power to China.
Secretary Pompeo said he dissented strongly from the view that an authoritarian approach would prove to be more effective in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and that authoritarian regimes would lead the way out of the current crisis: “It will be people living in freedom and democracy who will bring the world [back] to security and prosperity.”
Nevertheless, he welcomed the efforts made by China to provide assistance in Central Asia and elsewhere, stating that this was a global crisis and that the more countries stood shoulder to shoulder and cooperated to bring it to an end, the better for the global community.
He pointed out, however, that the US has already disbursed $500 million in foreign assistance worldwide and expressed his belief that the US was leading global efforts to contain the crisis.
WHO failure
Secretary Pompeo was scathing in his assessment of the performance of the WHO, which he stated was “not fit for purpose [and had] not lived up to its standards” and in particular had been unable to hold China accountable for its faulty data.
File photo of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo | Reuters“When there is failure in an organization executing its mission, we will find mechanisms that will deliver … the US will rally the world and explore how this [failure] will not happen again,” he said.
Replying to a question as to whether freezing WHO funding did not run the risk of creating a power vacuum that could in fact result in the US having less influence than before to reform the organization, he responded that the question the US was asking was whether the institution was fixable.
Pompeo suggested that the question of whether you can get the desired outcome from within an existing body was a recurring one within the Trump administration world view and that the American review of the WHO was being conducted with that question in mind: “Do they work? How do we get the best outcome? Can you get the best outcome from within? How best do we get the impact we want?”
The core question, according to the secretary, was whether the WHO could deliver on its mission, and he suggested that perhaps severing the regulatory and operational functions of the body might be one avenue of better delivery.
He concluded by expressing his confidence that the rest of the world could and would see the failures of the WHO that were underpinning the steps the US was taking in holding it to account, and reiterated that the goal of the US was to ensure a global health regimen that best serves the cause of global health.
Secretary Pompeo was joined on the call by Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan, The Print Editor Shekhar Gupta, Nepali Times Editor Kunda Dixit, and Indrani Bagchi, senior diplomatic editor of the Times of India, among others.