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Russian health minster elected World Health Assembly president

The Russian health minister has been elected president of the 70th World Health Assembly, the highest governing body of the World Health Organization

Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova

© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

GENEVA, May 19. /TASS/. Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova has been elected president of the 70th World Health Assembly, the highest governing body of the World Health Organization.

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Skvortsova was proposed by the countries of the European region, which took over the WHO rotating presidency this year. Earlier, the WHO’s regional director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab said there were two motives behind the decision - Skvortsova’s vast personal experience and Russia’s leading role in many fields of health care.

None of the polled delegations objected to the proposal. However, the Ukrainian delegation before the poll said its attitude to Russia’s presidency was negative. The Ukrainian delegate reiterated Kiev’s well-known stance Russia was allegedly waging a war against Ukraine.

China’s delegate who took the floor afterwards declared his country’s full support for Skvortsova’s election. He said that "in the capacity of the rotating president of the BRICS group China on behalf of Brazil, India, and South Africa supports Skvortsova’s candidacy and noted her high competence.

"We will fully support Skvortsova during this assembly," he said.

WHA president’s activities

In her capacity of the WHA president Skvortsova will conduct elections of a new WHO director general and sign a contract. The session is to adopt a number of resolutions and global action plans concerning the prevention of non-infectious diseases, shortage of vaccines, struggle against resistibility to anti-bacterial preparations and other topical issues. The Assembly will draft guidelines for WHO activities for twelve months to come.

The WHA will hear 70 reports and study other documents. There will be quite a few meetings and seminars on the Assembly’s guidelines. The Assembly will end on May 31.

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