Around two dozen world leaders have called for a new international treaty on preparing for future pandemics in an editorial published on Tuesday.
They include European Council President Charles Michel and several leaders of European countries who joined World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in calling for "a more robust international health architecture that will protect future generations."
The COVID-19 pandemic "has taught us one brutal lesson" that no country can go it alone, Michel said at a press conference on Tuesday with the WHO. He said the main goal of the treaty would be to better predict, prevent and respond to pandemics globally.
"No one is safe until everyone is safe," Michel added, stating an oft-quoted maxim that the pandemic had exposed weaknesses in global society.
"There are many lessons that we need to draw after this crisis," Michel added later on.
The treaty would be rooted in the constitution of the WHO, the leaders said, and would ensure equitable future global access to vaccines, medicines and diagnostics.
Citing the signing of global treaties and multilateralism following the Second World War, the leaders said countries needed to cooperate to address the threat of future pandemics.
"The main goal of this treaty would be to foster an all-of-government and all-of-society approach, strengthening national, regional and global capacities and resilience to future pandemics," the leaders wrote in the editorial.