Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, has participated, on Friday, in the ministerial meeting of the Alliance for Multilateralism, taking place in videoconference system, on the occasion of the 75 year anniversary since the signing of the United Nations Charter, context in which he referred also to the challenges of the pandemic, including the so-called "infodemic".
According to a release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the participants in the meeting evaluated the way in which the international system acted in the context of the crisis started by the COVID-19 pandemic and analyzed the ways to consolidate the multilateral architecture, especially that in the healthcare domain. Participants presented, also, the national approaches regarding the mechanisms at the disposal of the international community to prevent future crises.
The dignitaries also examined the fight against the infodemic - a complex information phenomenon, with diverse elements, among them false information, rumors, inexact, incomplete and narrative information that undermines the stability of societies, the credibility of institutions, often inducing panic or anxiety among citizens. This phenomenon appeared poignantly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasized the crucial importance that access to information from trustworthy sources has, as well as the essential role of a free and independent media, as well as of the informing of citizens and their resilience in relation to the phenomenon of fake news, the release informs.
In his intervention, Minister Bogdan Aurescu hailed the marking of the 75 year anniversary since the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, a reference moment in the international system built after the Second World War. He expressed the firm support of Romania for multilateralism and emphasized the importance of protecting and consolidating it in relation to the challenges revealed by the pandemic, including the so-called "infodemic".
"Minister Aurescu emphasized the need to consolidate multilateralism and the values that stand at the base of the international system based on rules. The high dignitary hailed the Franco-German initiative as part of the international demarches to reaffirm the need for cooperation and coordination, as the sole viable solution in the managing the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. In this context, he recalled the efforts of Romania in the line of international cooperation in combating the crisis, accentuating its role within European crisis reaction mechanisms and our country's demarches for medical support for foreign partners. He presented the responsible and predictable way in which Romania acted in the past months, both at the multilateral, as well as bilateral levels. He emphasized that our country was the first to host, at the level of the European Union, a joint reserve of medical material (rescEU), necessary in emergency situations, the materials being distributed to the neighboring countries and not only. He showed that Romania also offered bilateral support, in the form of sending medical teams and protection equipment to several partner countries," MAE mentions.
Aurescu also made reference to the anniversary ministerial meeting of the Community of Democracies, which he presided over, in the context of Romania holding the chairmanship of this multilateral platform.
"The head of Romanian diplomacy emphasized the significance of the adoption, today, under Romania's chairmanship, of the Bucharest Statement of the Community of Democracies and underlined the activity of our country within the Community, in support of democratic principles, manifested also through the projects aimed at counteracting malignant foreign intervention on democracies. Minister Aurescu reiterated Romania's support for the development and implementation of joint narratives and instruments, necessary in combating 'infodemics'. These must be in the service of values, fundamental rights and joint democratic principles, shared by the partners of our country on the international stage, and must respect fundamental freedoms such as the organization of free and just elections, freedom of the press, freedom of expression and opinion," the release shows.
According to MAE, the minister hailed, in this context, the launching during the reunion of an ad-hoc working group against "infodemics", under the banner of the Forum on Information and Democracy.
The ministerial meeting of the Alliance for Multilateralism, hosted by Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Foreign Affairs Minister of France, and Heiko Maas, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Germany, saw the attendance of over 40 ministers, state secretaries, and other dignitaries from around the world, representatives of states and organizations that support the multilateral system and this informal platform meant to contribute to its consolidation.
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