Opinion | A game of diplomatic chessboard on WHO’s battlefield
4 min read . Updated: 25 May 2020, 11:48 PM ISTFor the first time, WHO is caught up in a cold war between China and the US
Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has taken over as chair of the World Health Organization (WHO) executive board at a very difficult time. The whole world has been shaken up by the covid-19 crisis. With limited powers, it would be a difficult task for Vardhan to help humanity through WHO.
This, at a time when questions have been raised on the role of this organisation during the outbreak. US President Donald Trump and some other leaders from the West are blaming China for deliberately pushing the world into the pandemic. They also alleged that WHO could neither stop Beijing nor hold it responsible. Trump even threatened to permanently stop funding WHO, and reconsider its membership. If the US and its allies take this path, it would become difficult to run the organization. During the course of its existence, WHO has passed through a number of diplomatic obstacles, but for the first time it is caught up in an emerging cold war between the US and China. This development is certainly sad for the world, since, in the past, WHO has played an important role in the eradication of diseases like smallpox and polio. Right now, we need such organisations.
This need further increases when we flip the pages of history. The League of Nations was constituted in 1920, after the World War I, with the aim of settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Whether it was the dispute between Sweden and Finland, or between Bulgaria and Greece, the League played an important role to solve the issues. When everyone was hoping that there will be no World War again, the war broke out. After the war, countries felt the need for another intergovernmental organisation to maintain peace. Just one year before the dissolution of the League, WHO was constituted in 1945.
The Charter of the United Nations (UN) came into force on 24 October, 1945 and, a few months later, in April 1946, the League of Nations was formally dissolved, and the United Nations came into existence. It was the end of one dream and the beginning of another. UN played an important role in the half-century-long cold war between the US and the Soviet Union. But everything changed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. When the Soviet Union disappeared, the US become the undisputed leader. No one was there to stop its march. When the US and its allies attacked Iraq, the UN could not stop the war. It was said that Iraq under Saddam Hussein had a huge cache of chemical weapons, despite the 1,625 observers from the UN and the US who inspected the 1,700 suspected sites, not finding anything. It’s clear that the reason for the attack was something else. This ‘something else’ was going to prove more fatal. The only fallout of this misadventure was that UK PM Tony Blair lost power. All along he had said that he had convincing information on the stock of chemical weapons kept by Hussein. Billions of dollars and a large number of lives were lost in this needless war. The only satisfaction for former US President George W. Bush was that he could hang Hussein. What Bush, Blair and their allies got is another matter, but one thing is sure—that attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq actually catalysed jihadi forces. The UN’s failure, in both these cases, proved costly for the peaceful population of the world. Now, when WHO is being made a pawn in the tussle between the US and China, we must remember this lesson. It is actually a trade war between the US and China which is being fought on the battlefield of WHO. There is one more similarity, Iraq was alleged to possess chemical weapons, and now China is being blamed for the spread of the virus. That’s why, at the beginning, I said Vardhan’s tenure is going to be challenging. As he takes over as the chairman of WHO’s executive board, 100 members out of the 194 are against China, directly or indirectly. So, now, it’s not just an issue related to WHO, but a game of diplomatic chessboard. The outcome may also decide the future of the world. We should also remember that leadership skills are tested in such times. As health minister Vardhan has played an important role in the fight against covid-19. We should wish him the best, not only for India’s interests, but since it is also crucial for the whole world.
Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. His Twitter handle is @shekarkahin
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