ASEAN ministers convene for special discussion on coronavirus cooperation
Southeast Asian ministers from the ten ASEAN countries will hold a special videoconference to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic today. The goal of today’s talks will be to discuss strategies to prevent and combat the spread of the virus.
A number of experts have criticised the ASEAN countries for their slow response to the epidemic, an early area of spread of the global pandemic. The region now has more than 14,000 cases of COVID-19. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand are currently accumulating an average of more than 100 reported cases per day.
ASEAN is expected to increase economic and supply interdependence to combat the crisis in the medium term. Towards this, the countries have planned to jointly establish a medical supply reserve and a public medical network to combat the pandemic.
The region is also expected to heavily rely on neighbour China for equipment in its response. Indeed, China had already shipped medical supplies, facemasks and sanitisers to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand in late March, establishing a supply chain to the region.
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