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World leaders are reigniting calls for a pandemic agreement to be finalised, more than two years since negotiations began.
Among them is former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, who told Stuff’s daily news podcast, Newsable, that it’s “almost incomprehensible” no resolution has been reached, with a May 2024 deadline now just weeks away.
Clark has added her name to an open letter, alongside Dame Jenny Shipley and the likes of former United Nations General Secretary Ban-ki Moon and ex-UK Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, urging accelerated progress on the global deal.
“The negotiations, if one can call them that, have been extremely difficult”, she said.
“The process does not seem to have been a good one. Normally when you’re going to negotiate a text you need a draft on the table a long time before.”
“They appeared to follow a process of putting everything, but the kitchen sink, on the table and everybody commented on that and went round and round in circles”, Clark added.
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