Lao People’s Democratic Republic has closely followed the development of COVID-19 origin-tracing in the international arena. We are of the view that COVID-19 origin-tracing is an important and complex scientific exercise that needs to be conducted based on scientific research and study and required global efforts and cooperation among relevant specialized international scientists in an inclusive, transparent and location-wide manner. The politicization of the issue and the using of non-scientific and unprofessional body to conduct origin-tracing is counter-productive and could derail collective international efforts. Lao PDR strongly believes that only through a genuine multilateralism and international cooperation and pure scientific research we would be able to overcome the prevailing challenges.

 Vientiane, September 2^nd, 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented and brought about untold consequences to lives and socio-economic development of the world. No one is safe until everyone is safe. Therefore, it required concerted and genuine cooperation and partnership among nations across the world, especially in the face of the current wave of outbreak in which COVID-19 mutation has become more contagious and resistant to available vaccines. In this context, genuine cooperation should be strongly promoted through development and production of vaccines and medicines, politicization of vaccines or the origin-tracing of COVID-19 virus should be avoided, as it is a complex scientific matter that requires objective, transparent, inclusive and purely scientific based efforts. Only through multilateral cooperation, all nations, especially developing countries, would be able to have equal access to vaccines and medicines and thus COVID-19 would be defeated.

Lao PDR stands ready to support and contribute to this endeavor.

Vientiane, July 22^nd, 2021