While populist nationalism has already challenged liberal values of global cooperation, human rights, and openness, vaccine nationalism is showing signs of becoming the latest threat to international cooperation. Liberals must act to encourage that vaccines are thoroughly tested and safe before being mass distributed, and to encourage countries to act with solidarity with high-risk individuals in both poor and rich countries. The pandemic is by its nature global, and the world must act together to be able to defeat it.

The bureau of Liberal International (LI) deplores the decision of the World Health Assembly to deprive Taiwan of retaking its seat as an observer to the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation on Monday 18th May.

Liberal International Deputy President and Chairman of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Karl-Heinz Paqué, has endorsed a call by Deputy Chair of the FDP Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag responsible for foreign security, European, and development policy, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, for a greater commitment from Germany and Europe to World Health Organisation (WHO) after the halt of payments by the United States.

The King of Morocco, Mohammed IV, called on the support of African liberal leaders to join with him in establishing a framework to assist other African countries in managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

At an increasing pace, governments are enforcing temporary emergency legislation in attempts to mitigate the continued spread of the coronavirus outbreak. The emergency legislations passed right now in countries all over the world give power to states to control people’s lives and set aside their freedoms in ways that are normally reserved for authoritarian governments or for times of war.

As coronavirus spreads rapidly round the world, one question stands out; are we really that surprised? For years, serious warnings about pandemics were met with shrugged shoulders. Yet a real solution – the application of global governance principles to health security, is now quite clearly right before us.

We know that many in our community are asking questions about the Liberal International congress in Sofia because of the understandable concerns about coronavirus – COVID-19. We take those concerns very seriously.