Jakarta (VNA) –ꦉ Experts from theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) convenedon December 8 to exchange best practices on policies and to identify furtheropportunities for collaboration on COVID-19 vaccines.

In a press release, the EU noted that astwo leading regional organisations, ASEAN and the EU share a common interest inpursuing a multilateral approach to an affordable, fair and equitable access tosafe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. The 23rd ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting on December1 confirmed this commitment and vowed to continue to support vaccine multilateralismand provision of COVID-19 vaccines as global public goods. In line with its commitment to vaccinemultilateralism, the EU contributed 500 million EUR (over 605 million USD) ingrants and guaranteed loans to support the COVAX Facility.  COVAX aims to accelerate the developmentand manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and free equitableaccess for every country in the world. As of today, 189 economies are part ofthe COVAX Facility. The cooperation on vaccines builds uponextensive assistance to Southeast Asia provided by the EU, most notably the 800million EUR “Team Europe” package to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in ASEAN.Last week, the EU announced a new 20 million EUR support programme on “SouthEast Asia Health Pandemic Response and Preparedness”. The online dialogue that took place on December8 provided a platform for EU’s and ASEAN’s leading policy practitioners andmedical experts for debating strategies and practical aspects of vaccineauthorisation, production, and distribution in two separate panels. Speaking at the event, Kung Phoak, theDeputy Secretary General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, said thatthe ASEAN and EU have coordinated and cooperated at various levels and throughvarious stakeholders in responding effectively to this pandemic. The webinar dialogue on vaccine furtherdeepens and facilitates innovations in health cooperation between ASEAN and EU,and further builds a robust relationship in the exchanges of policies towardsaffordable, fair and equitable access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines,he added. For his part, Professor Peter Piot, SpecialAdvisor to the President of the European Commission on COVID-19 and theDirector of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said that safeand effective vaccines have a key role to play in emerging from the COVID-19crisis. No country, however, is safe until everycountry is safe. EU-ASEAN collaboration and leadership is more important thanever in ensuring that everyone, everywhere can benefit from these vital tools, the scholar added./.