RIO DE JANEIRO, July 7. /TASS/. The global community needs to resist attempts by certain countries to subjugate the World Health Organization (WHO) to their interests, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a BRICS summit session on the environment.

"In response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, an effort was launched within BRICS to create a comprehensive early warning system for preventing mass outbreaks of diseases. We suggest ensuring coordination within the BRICS community on issues of reforming the World Health Organization with the goal of bringing it back to its initial mandate - protecting public health by fighting diseases and monitoring the sanitary and epidemiological situation worldwide," the top Russian diplomat said.

"At the same time, it is important to resist certain states’ attempts to subjugate WHO activities to serve their interests, particularly in the sphere of biotechnologies, and to use the organization for obvious geopolitical goals," Lavrov added.

According to the minister, it is important to promote various BRICS initiatives to the WHO, including the BRICS vaccine development center, and the development of public health research networks.

"We also view as promising areas nuclear medicine, training of national healthcare professionals, and innovative technologies in the treatment of cancer and other diseases, as well as the production of radiological medicines and medical isotopes," Lavrov said.