Pakistan opposes politicizing COVID-19 origins tracing, urges science-based cooperation

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan firmly opposes politicizing COVID-19 origins tracing, believing that it is a scientific matter and should be examined via science-based approaches, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

Commenting on a recent origins-tracing report by the U.S. intelligence community, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, spokesman for the ministry, said that Pakistan dispels insinuations on the virus origins, which should not be affiliated with race, region and ethnicities.

Pakistan firmly believes in multilateralism and vows to extend full support to the World Health Organization (WHO)'s science-based work and reject any politicization, Ahmad said.

The China-WHO joint study report on COVID-19 origins-tracing published earlier in March has drawn an authoritative and scientific conclusion on issues in this respect, which should be recognized, respected, maintained and taken as the basis for global origins tracing in the next phase, said the spokesperson.

It is hoped that the WHO can "join the international community in maintaining the scientific nature and preciseness of the study on origins-tracing, resisting the practice of politicizing the origins-tracing issue, and retaining the good atmosphere of global cooperation in fighting the pandemic," he added.