Vaccine access equality and justice are the biggest moral test we are facing.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi drew attention to the COVID-19 vaccine inequity during the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) held in Beograd, Serbia, on October 11-12, 2021.

Vaccine discrimination and politicization have increasingly widened vaccine inequity and led to uneven recovery, the minister remarked.

“Vaccine access equality and justice are the biggest moral test we are facing,” Marsudi noted in an statement streamed on the YouTube channel of the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.


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For this part, Indonesia has called for equality among all nations in responding to the vaccine issue in accordance with Dasasila Bandung (10 Bandung Principles) formulated in the early days of NAM’s establishment as the principles of international relations and cooperation, she noted.

“That is why NAM must act in unity and solidarity to push for even distribution and equal vaccine access,” she remarked.

Vaccine inequity has continued to draw attention of the Indonesian government in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data of the World Health Organization (WHO), only two percent of the six billion vaccines distributed worldwide went to Africa.

The minister noted that Indonesia was encouraging NAM to prioritize cooperation values amid geopolitical competition that threatens cooperation in addressing the pandemic and other global challenges, such as climate change.


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She also expressed optimism that NAM would promote respect for justice, especially to support the Palestinian people’s struggle for independence.

“We are still indebted to the Palestinian people (for the establishment of) an independent Palestinian state, which has been delayed for quite a long time,” she affirmed.

NAM was established when the NAM Summit, which brought together 25 countries, was held in Beograd on September 1-6, 1961.

At the NAM Summit, NAM founding countries resolved to establish a movement instead of an organization to shun bureaucratic implications in building cooperation efforts among them.


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NAM has a special position in Indonesia’s foreign policy, as the country has played a central role in establishing NAM since the Asia-Africa Conference was held in Bandung, West Java, in 1955.

First Indonesian president Soekarno was also known as one of the initiators and founders of NAM.

Indonesia deemed NAM as necessary, not merely for its contributions to the world but also for its principles and goals that reflect the struggle and aim of the Indonesian nation as stipulated in the 1945 Constitution.


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Translator: Yashinta Difa Pr, Suharto
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2021