A resolution pushed by the European Union and Australia calling for a review into the origins and spread of the novel coronavirus has the support of 116 countries at the World Health Assembly, almost enough for it to pass, a document showed.
The resolution on the coronavirus will be put forward on Tuesday if it gains backing from two-thirds of the 194 members of the assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organization.
China has strongly opposed calls for an international investigation into the pandemic but appeared more amenable to the resolution on Monday.
A copy of the draft resolution seen by Reuters on Monday showed support from 116 members was locked in, although Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said negotiations were going on and she did not want to pre-empt the outcome.
The resolution was “an important part of the conversation we started, and I am very grateful to the efforts of those in the European Union and those many drafters who have been part of the negotiations for the past few weeks”, Payne told reporters.
The resolution was comprehensive and included a call for “an examination of the zoonotic origins of the coronavirus”, she said.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman played-down Australia’s involvement in the resolution, attributing it solely to the EU, and said China was consulted on the content of the draft.
“China, along with other countries, took an active part in these consultations and agreed on the unifying of the text,” the ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, told a regular briefing in Beijing, though he stopped short of saying China supported the measure.
Australia - which has reported only 99 deaths - says it wants to prevent a repeat of the pandemic that has paralysed economic activity around the world and is not looking to cast blame.
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