OREANDA-NEWS. On March 26, Russia submitted to the UN General Assembly an initiative to adopt a Declaration on Solidarity in Countering COVID-19. This was reported on the website of the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

The document recognizes the leading role of World Health Organization (WHO) in combating the pandemic, the consent of states to collaborate with each other and with WHO, to develop options for controlling the spread and treatment of the disease, to help the most affected states, especially developing countries, to refuse trade wars and application of unilateral sanctions, which are adopted without approving by the UN Security Council. The declaration also calls for preventing discrimination of countries, peoples and individuals in connection with the pandemic, countering financial speculation with essential goods, recognizing the need to spread reliable and scientifically based information about the situation.