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At WHO, India joins 61 nations to seek source of coronavirus -Shubhajit Roy

-The Indian Express

This is the first time India has taken a position in an international forum on the origin of the virus and the need for an independent evaluation of WHO’s response to the crisis. So far, New Delhi had maintained that it is engaged in the fight against Covid-19, and will revisit the issue after the crisis is over.

India is among 62 countries that have moved a proposal at the World Health Assembly to “identify the zoonotic source” of the coronavirus and asked for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the WHO’s response to Covid-19. China and the US are not part of the resolution.

The proposal is part of a seven-page draft resolution moved by 35 countries and the 27-member European Union, and is likely to be taken up on Monday at the Assembly, which is the decision-making body of the WHO.

The resolution is being backed by three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — UK, Russia and France — along with Japan, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey, among others.

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