Building community of health for all critical to dealing with COVID-19: Rwandan ambassador

James Kimonyo, Rwandan ambassador to China, at China's largest vaccine manufacturing enterprise Sinopharm CNBG, in Beijing on Oct.15, 2020. (People's Daily Online/Wu Chaolan)

The concept of building a community of health for all is critical, and countries should work together to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, said James Kimonyo, Rwandan ambassador to China.

In a recent interview with People's Daily Online, James commended China's efforts to uphold win-win cooperation for building a community with a shared future for mankind on global issues. "This is not political rhetoric, it's something that is happening,"  he said, "China is ready to partner with countries across the world to deal with global challenges including COVID-19."

He added that China is putting the idea of a community of health for all into practice by supporting other countries amid the pandemic and making the COVID-19 vaccine a global public good." China is leading the way in terms of making this vaccine available to the world," James said in comments on China's decision to join COVAX, noting that this move showed President Xi's commitment to African countries at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19, ensuring the equitable distribution of vaccines to African countries.

Stressing that "strength comes from unity and division creates weaknesses," James called for solidarity, referring to the growing unilateralism amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "No country can succeed or conquer COVID-19 unless we come together. Conducting such behavior [of unilateralism] will doom us to failure," he said.

After visiting China's largest vaccine manufacturing enterprise, Sinopharm of the China National Biotec Group (CNBG), James said he was impressed by CNBG's vaccine development capacity and expressed willingness to cooperate with China and CNBG, introducing the vaccine to Rwanda to help the country defeat the coronavirus.

"China and Rwanda cooperation during this crisis has been fantastic," he said, "Rwanda was among the first countries to support China when the coronavirus cases were reported. In return, China, as usual, helped Rwanda to fight against the virus by providing PPEs and sharing its professional experience. We have very solid and wonderful cooperation."

James spoke highly of the bilateral relationship between China and Rwanda, noting that the two countries have cooperated on a number of programs, contributing to the development of Rwanda.

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Rwanda. James expressed his hopes for and looked forward to the deepening of China-Rwanda cooperation. "We are all really excited about this," he said.