We are Interested in it for Learning, says Jacinda Ardern on Virus Probe

New Zealand is part of a coalition of 62 countries backing an Australian push for an investigation into the origin of the Covid-19 outbreak in China Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she didn’t believe there was any blame to be laid, but the international community was right to be asking questions, she told Morning Report.

“We have agreed that we should look at these key learnings,” Ardern said.

“The idea that this one-in-100year event that has caused global economic shock, has had a devastating impact on the health systems and the lives and livelihoods of people around the world - the idea that we wouldn’t want to look at that and learn from that seems surprising to me. Of course, we would.

“We’re not interested in this for blame, we’re interested in it for learning.”

She reiterated the government’s stance that Taiwan should have observer status at the World Health Organisation (WHO), “however that does not change the position we’ve had since 1972 around the one-China policy”.

A coalition of 62 countries has backed a joint Australian and European Union push for an independent inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak ahead of a crucial World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting on Monday in Geneva.

The Morrison Government has now swung its diplomatic firepower behind the European Union, which has also been pressing for an investigation while taking a more conciliatory line with Beijing.

European nations and Australia have been rallying support for a draft EU motion which calls for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of “the WHO-coordinated international health response to Covid-19”.

As of Sunday evening, Canberra time, 62 nations — including Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Russia, South Africa and the United Kingdom - had backed the motion.

The motion does not specifically mention China or the city of Wuhan where the outbreak is believed to have begun.

At this stage, neither China nor the US have backed the motion. EU foreign affairs spokesperson Virginie Battu-Henriksson said the organisation was focused on reaching a consensus for an inquiry.

“Of course, we need to have the support of all the major players, and China is one of them,” she told the

Meanwhile, US diplomats have been pressing for tougher language that specifically calls for a probe into how the virus started in the Chinese city of Wuhan. US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both furiously denounced China’s initial response to the virus, accusing it of covering up the initial outbreak and allowing it to spread around the world.