Heine Writes OpEd on COVID-19 and the G20
Ambassador Jorge Heine , Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published an OpEd in Global Times on March 26, 2020, calling on the world leaders of the G20 to once again take center stage in combating the coronavirus pandemic.
Titled, ‘G20 Comes tho the Fore Again,’ the OpEd argues that, “The US and China should take the lead in working together to overcome what is a major threat to all of humanity. However, there is no substitute for concerted multilateral action. For this, we happen to have an instrument that seems made-to-order for this extreme emergency. The G20 should once again come to the fore and do the needful”
An excerpt (read full OpEd here):
The paradox of the current pandemic is that, by definition, it is a global challenge, but it’s being fought with a minimal degree of international coordination, not even within the EU itself. The almost automatic response has been to shut borders, as if that, by itself, would solve the problem. There is an argument to be made to close borders at certain moments, and to travelers from certain countries. But the haphazard measures, and the tens of thousands of people that have been left stranded abroad, without being able to return to their home countries, reflect the improvised and chaotic nature of the world’s response to the pandemic.
Ambassador Jorge Heine is a Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He has served as ambassador of Chile to China ( 2014-2017), to India ( 2003-2007) and to South Africa ( 1994-1999), and as a Cabinet Minister in the Chilean Government. More on him here.