“China’s Foreign Minister said that the vaccine developed in his country will be a public benefit of universal access, and that his country will designate a loan of $1 billion to support access [to the vaccine] for the nations of the region,” the statement said.
During a daily briefing on Thursday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador thanked China after the loan announcement.
“We’re very grateful to China, with the Chinese government, the President — you remember I had the chance to speak to him on the phone — we asked him for support with medical equipment, there have been many aid flights coming from China.”
“There’s always been enough equipment supply, medicines, and now there is this offer,” he added.
The virtual meeting on Wednesday was led by Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, and Wang Yi. Their counterparts from Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay also joined.
He said the meeting would “consolidate consensus between the two sides on jointly fighting the pandemic, cement political mutual trust, uphold multilateralism” and build a community with a shared future for the regions.
Governmental responses to the virus have differed radically across Latin America, however the region’s informal workforce and high levels of inequality are among the factors driving the widening outbreak.
CNN’s Zamira Rahim and Emma Reynolds also contributed to this report.