By Ahn Ho-young
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga visited Washington, D.C., for his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, April 16. It was soon followed by President Moon Jae-in, who met with Biden, May 21. Because the two Asian leaders visited Washington at such a short interval, the Korean news media has been busy for some time ferreting out stories to make comparisons between the two visits.
One of the well-publicized stories was the different menu for the summit lunches, a hamburger for Suga and a crab cake for Moon. Of course, there were other differences of far higher importance.
One of them was how the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) was discussed among the leaders. The joint statement with Japan made only a fleeting reference to the GHSA, while the joint statement with Korea made a lengthy and substantive reference to it.
Why? Because Korea has been heavily invested in the inauguration and operation of the GHSA from its very beginnings. Korea recognized early on that it was another high priority multilateral initiative of former U.S. President Barack Obama, following his initiative on a Nuclear Security Summit (NSS).
I attended the ceremony to launch the GHSA, which was held at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 13, 2014. Several weeks later, Andrew Weber, assistant secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, invited me to a business lunch at the Pentagon.
He explained how the United States was preparing for a high-level meeting to be held in Washington in September. Toward the end of the lunch, upon learning that the U.S. had not yet secured a host for the second high-level meeting, I suggested naming the second host country would be important because it would ensure the continuity of the process. Weber agreed and wondered if Korea would be interested. I recommend to Seoul that Korea serve as the second host and Seoul subsequently gave its approval.
The first GHSA high-level meeting was held in Washington on Sept. 26, 2014. President Obama elaborated in his opening statement how the U.S. had tried to fight the Ebola outbreak during the past several months.
Then, he said no nation could meet these challenges on its own, which in fact was the motivation underlying his GHSA initiative. In this context, he made clear that the U.S. would assume a leadership role since it had capabilities that other nations didn't have.
The high-level meeting endorsed 11 action packages to prevent outbreaks, detect threats in real time, and rapidly respond to infectious disease threats. In terms of governance structure, a ten-country GHSA steering group, including Korea and the U.S. among them, was formed to track progress, identify challenges, and oversee achieving GHSA objectives. It was also announced that the second high-level meeting would be held in Korea.
On the margins of the high-level meeting, a side event was held at Blair House, to which I was invited as a panelist. Another panelist was Edith Schippers, the Dutch health minister. I reminded her that Korea would be the second host and suggested that the Netherlands would be perfect as the third host.
I added that the three hosts of the NSS so far would have been the U.S., Korea and the Netherlands, which underscored the importance of concerted leadership among the U.S., Asia and Europe for important global issues. Indeed, the Netherlands would later host the third high-level meeting.
Between the two multilateral initiatives of Obama's, the GHSA, unlike the NSS, survived the change of U.S. government and has continued to develop. One measure of the relevance of a multilateral institution would be to assess its membership changes.
The GHSA started with 29 countries in February, 2014. As of September, 2018, 65 countries representing nearly 6 billion people, along with 9 international and regional multilateral organizations and institutions, and non-governmental sector partners were also part of GHSA.
Much of the GHSA's activities so far have been focused upon evaluating member countries' health security capacity, identifying the gaps and working with them to mobilize resources to address them. There has been noticeable progress in member countries' lab systems, surveillance systems, workforce development and emergency management and response. Based upon such a progress, the GHSA mandate has been extended for another five years from 2019 to 2024.
Throughout all these years, Korea and the U.S. have played important roles as members of the GHSA steering group, which explains why the Moon-Biden joint statement had a lengthy and substantive reference to the GHSA.
After the GHSA's launch, the world experienced daunting epidemic challenges; an Ebola outbreak in Western Africa in 2014, a Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in Korea in 2015, and now the COVID-19 pandemic. The GHSA could not prevent these outbreaks. However, if anything, the initiative proved to have been timely, and its focus on capacity building relevant.
Ahn Ho-young (hyahn78@mofa.or.kr) is president of the University of North Korean Studies. He served as Korean ambassador to the United States and first vice foreign minister.
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One of the well-publicized stories was the different menu for the summit lunches, a hamburger for Suga and a crab cake for Moon. Of course, there were other differences of far higher importance.
One of them was how the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) was discussed among the leaders. The joint statement with Japan made only a fleeting reference to the GHSA, while the joint statement with Korea made a lengthy and substantive reference to it.
Why? Because Korea has been heavily invested in the inauguration and operation of the GHSA from its very beginnings. Korea recognized early on that it was another high priority multilateral initiative of former U.S. President Barack Obama, following his initiative on a Nuclear Security Summit (NSS).
I attended the ceremony to launch the GHSA, which was held at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 13, 2014. Several weeks later, Andrew Weber, assistant secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, invited me to a business lunch at the Pentagon.
He explained how the United States was preparing for a high-level meeting to be held in Washington in September. Toward the end of the lunch, upon learning that the U.S. had not yet secured a host for the second high-level meeting, I suggested naming the second host country would be important because it would ensure the continuity of the process. Weber agreed and wondered if Korea would be interested. I recommend to Seoul that Korea serve as the second host and Seoul subsequently gave its approval.
The first GHSA high-level meeting was held in Washington on Sept. 26, 2014. President Obama elaborated in his opening statement how the U.S. had tried to fight the Ebola outbreak during the past several months.
Then, he said no nation could meet these challenges on its own, which in fact was the motivation underlying his GHSA initiative. In this context, he made clear that the U.S. would assume a leadership role since it had capabilities that other nations didn't have.
The high-level meeting endorsed 11 action packages to prevent outbreaks, detect threats in real time, and rapidly respond to infectious disease threats. In terms of governance structure, a ten-country GHSA steering group, including Korea and the U.S. among them, was formed to track progress, identify challenges, and oversee achieving GHSA objectives. It was also announced that the second high-level meeting would be held in Korea.
On the margins of the high-level meeting, a side event was held at Blair House, to which I was invited as a panelist. Another panelist was Edith Schippers, the Dutch health minister. I reminded her that Korea would be the second host and suggested that the Netherlands would be perfect as the third host.
I added that the three hosts of the NSS so far would have been the U.S., Korea and the Netherlands, which underscored the importance of concerted leadership among the U.S., Asia and Europe for important global issues. Indeed, the Netherlands would later host the third high-level meeting.
Between the two multilateral initiatives of Obama's, the GHSA, unlike the NSS, survived the change of U.S. government and has continued to develop. One measure of the relevance of a multilateral institution would be to assess its membership changes.
The GHSA started with 29 countries in February, 2014. As of September, 2018, 65 countries representing nearly 6 billion people, along with 9 international and regional multilateral organizations and institutions, and non-governmental sector partners were also part of GHSA.
Much of the GHSA's activities so far have been focused upon evaluating member countries' health security capacity, identifying the gaps and working with them to mobilize resources to address them. There has been noticeable progress in member countries' lab systems, surveillance systems, workforce development and emergency management and response. Based upon such a progress, the GHSA mandate has been extended for another five years from 2019 to 2024.
Throughout all these years, Korea and the U.S. have played important roles as members of the GHSA steering group, which explains why the Moon-Biden joint statement had a lengthy and substantive reference to the GHSA.
After the GHSA's launch, the world experienced daunting epidemic challenges; an Ebola outbreak in Western Africa in 2014, a Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in Korea in 2015, and now the COVID-19 pandemic. The GHSA could not prevent these outbreaks. However, if anything, the initiative proved to have been timely, and its focus on capacity building relevant.
Ahn Ho-young (hyahn78@mofa.or.kr) is president of the University of North Korean Studies. He served as Korean ambassador to the United States and first vice foreign minister.
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