United States Hosts Launch of Foreign Ministry Channel for Global Health Security

On March 14, Ambassador Dr. John Nkengasong – U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy, overseeing the Department’s Bureau for Global Health Security and Diplomacy – is hosting a day-long discussion to plan priorities and review lines of effort for the new Foreign Ministry Channel for Global Health Security.  Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Richard R. Verma will open the discussion.  Participants in the meeting include representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Canada, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Morocco, Norway, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The Channel builds on the 2022-2023 COVID-19 Pandemic Prioritized Global Action Plan for Enhanced Engagement (GAP).  The meeting is the first in a series of regular engagements between senior officials within Ministries of Foreign Affairs to focus diplomatic attention and action on critical global health security priorities.  The foreign ministries, and participants from other ministries, will build on progress in this first meeting to elevate global health security issues as a national security imperative, enhance pandemic preparedness, and advance concrete global health security deliverables.  Participants will collaborate on global efforts to:

• Strengthen pandemic prevention and early-warning capacities
• Address misinformation and disinformation on health issues, and leverage emerging technologies to strengthen global health security
• Mitigate the human health impacts of climate change utilizing the One Health approach, which recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health
• Enable sustainable medical countermeasure for health emergencies
• Enhance diplomatic workforce capacity on health security.

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