From Russia With Love a planeload of
ventilators masks and respirators landed
in New York yesterday a propaganda coup
for the Russian leader and more evidence
that the supposed superpower is
floundering not leading covert 19 is a
global threat but no one is spearheading
a global response
it's an international problem in a world
of competing nationalisms from this day
forward it's going to be only America
first America first which country would
look to the US for leadership now my
fellow Americans tonight I want to speak
with you to a president who refers the
virus as generally foreign or
specifically Chinese it started in China
and is now spreading throughout the
world and stopped flights to Europe
without even warning EU leaders this is
a global pandemic the German Chancellor
famously confronted President Trump at a
meeting of g7 economic powers in 2018
but where is the g7 now virtual g7
meetings have ended with no binding
communique partly because the u.s.
insisted on referring to the wuhan virus
after the chinese city where it emerged
every one of the nations that was at
that meeting this morning was deeply
aware of the disinformation campaign
that the Chinese Communist Party is
engaged in to try and deflect from what
has really taken place here a virtual
meeting of the g20 was equally
ineffectual and the European Commission
president was scathing about EU
countries refusing to share equipment
coordinate movement restrictions or
agree a common financial response when
Europe really needed to be there for
each other too many initially looked out
for themselves when Europe really needed
and all for one spirit to many initially
gave and only for me response hi folks I
want to
bring you up to speed with something
that's happening today which is it I've
developed mild symptoms of the corona
virus the UK which with brexit chose to
self isolate before that was even a
thing
is not looked to for leadership these
days and the United Nations created
after World War two to combat global
threats has been sidelined by a
generation of leaders turning inwards
ask myself every single day is there
something I could do that would save
lives and make a difference arguably
President Obama abrogated u.s.
leadership by choosing not to intervene
in the war in Syria today China even
more than Russia is seizing the ground
that the US has ceded China has sent aid
to Europe for traying itself as a global
savior after initially covering up the
outbreak in Wuhan and then blaming the
u.s. for spreading the disease such a
contrast to the Ebola epidemic in 2014
when the US was a clear leader sending
troops and medical supplies to Liberia
building hospitals helping to reduce
fatalities and stop the spread alter
2009 when then Prime Minister Gordon
Brown credited with leading an effective
global response to the financial crisis
convened the g20 summit in London it was
held in of all places the XL Center now
the nightingale hospital worth thousands
of NHS staff are preparing for a
coronavirus surge now in the first of
two former world leaders interviews I
spoke to Jose Manuel Barroso former
presidents of the EU Commission and I
asked him whether the pandemic had
exposed the European Union's weaknesses
as member countries close their borders
to each other and struggle to cooperate
European Union itself is not the problem
the problem are some governments that do
not collect European and do what she
could to be doing so you'll be nice to
sh'zazz such I've been reacting I
believe in a Swift
determine manner European Central Bank
took unprecedented measures not only in
terms of the amounts that they are
committing to quantity busy and to the
monetary support but also in terms of
changing also their internal rules and
so advocating a policy of no limits
this took almost four years in the last
crisis now it took less than three weeks
I continue to think that in these
current circumstances most likely there
will be no consensus about karana bonds
or killer robots that could certainly be
from an ideal point of view the best
solution because it will be joint and
several emission of European or eurozone
debt that could be a much stronger
signal but let's be realistic nuclear
yield it's a union of now 27 countries
the arrows own 19 countries and they
have different approaches so at the end
like happens usually in Duty Union it
that'll be a compromise I see and
compromise would probably around
renewals or with some increased
flexibility for the European Stability
Mechanism but let's put things in
perspective
all new can countries be better if there
was not an opinion if there was a full
realisation of policies so important
political terms we are always to think
counterfactually what is alternatives
all the alternatives be better and
should not be so your opinion has its
flaws but at the end it works so what we
have to ask is the governments of Europe
to be more supportive of a common
approach is that a diplomatic way of
saying Germany can't be expected to pay
for everybody at the end of government
its case the chancellor of germany by
the way someone I respect very much
Angela Merkel first of all she has to
get the support of let's say citizens so
at the same time I understand fully the
concerns of Italy of Prime Minister
County our premise Sanchez in Spain they
are
facing a tragedy I mean it's a tragedy
it's a many carrying tragedy I
understand them fully and also
understand the conscience of other
countries that are not in the same
difficult situation from a health point
of view but are concerned mainly about
the economic and social impact of this
situation well when you look at the
United States China and the European
Union right now is there any hope for
global leadership it's difficult it's
difficult because I think there was
already a trend before these crisis a
kind of decoupling namely around issues
of trade but also technology namely
between the United States and China so
European Union
of course it's its own problems its
first of all - quite a common current
position but without a commitment strong
commitment of the United States they are
in spite of everything people say they
are still the most important power in
the world if you think about economic
and geopolitical or military terms and
the reality is that the American
leadership has not shown the same
commitment to a little order that it has
shown before and when the leader of the
most important country in the world says
my country first of course this
temptation is to say the fact the same
so and that creates more difficulties
for a coherent coordinated cooperative
global response
certainly I think there was at the
beginning some kind of under estimation
of the seriousness of this crisis that
we have seen but I think now most
generally speaking governments are
really committed in fighting above all
what is a truly dramatic
amanah terian emergency mr. Barasa thank
you very much indeed thank you so in the
second of our interviews with former
world leaders earlier I spoke to former
director of the World Health
and X Norwegian Prime Minister Gro
Harlem Brundtland and I began by asking
her if she was worried that every
country has taken different measures to
combat the virus
I do support those countries who have
taken strong action early and although
China you know made a great mistake in
the beginning weeks not to report early
enough it's certainly then as it started
spreading and they became aware they
have done very strict measures and you
see that this kind of public health
attitude and awareness is necessary to
make a difference other countries have
done very things I believe those who
have done the most effective public
health measures are also those that are
now in the best shape for instance South
Korea Hong Kong Singapore and also some
of the Nordic countries have really you
know taken action in the last few weeks
do you think that it will be the
developing countries particularly the
African continent and the in Latin
America who may suffer most from all
this yes and this is why from the global
preparedness monitoring board we have
put out you know urgent action requests
for funding because countries really
need support and early to try to prevent
a worse situation than it would
otherwise be and you know since the
economy is so affected in many countries
this is a major economic and financial
process and so money has to go to people
you know to to avoid poverty and lack of
food in the poorest countries and of
course in many countries this kind of
action has already been taken to secure
the work force that is being laid off
now do you think that we Europeans who
been concentrating very much on the
agony of Italy and Spain will soon be
talking about USA UK maybe even France I
think we already are talking about those
and I certainly noticed that your Prime
Minister changed course you know some
time ago not belittling the problem as
both he and Trump did for a long time
Trump has been doing that you know for
weeks but now he obviously is aware that
this crisis is real is a big catastrophe
also in the u.s. using your own
experience how much longer do you think
all this is going to go on I'm afraid
that their predictions that have been
made that it could last for a year or
one and a half until we have a vaccine
because that's an essential thing in
addition to equipment for health workers
and other parts of their preparedness
but we need a vaccine and of course that
that research is now ongoing dr. Crowe
Helen were Puntland thank you very much
indeed for talking with us thank you