SYDNEY - Chinese Ambassador to Tonga Cao Xiaolin called on the international community to strengthen COVID-19 vaccine cooperation and conduct the global origins tracing in a scientific way.

In an article published on Matangi Tonga Online on Tuesday, Cao said the COVID-19 infections are still rising around the world, and vaccines matter much to the fight against the virus.

However, outstanding problems such as insufficient vaccine production capacity, inequitable distribution and uneven vaccination still exist globally and the international society need to work together to fill in the immunisation gap between countries.

The ambassador said China hosted the first meeting of the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation virtually in a bid to strengthen global cooperation in this regard.

China will also strive to provide 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world throughout this year, and offer $100 million to COVAX, the global COVID-19 vaccine equity scheme.

China will also continue to deepen technology transfer and production capacity cooperation with developing countries, support the WTO in making an early decision on waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines.

Cao said as Chinese Ambassador to Tonga he is glad that Tonga remains one of the very few countries in the world that is still COVID-19 free.

Cao also called for a science-based origins tracing, stressing that no country is entitled to politicizing this scientific issue and use it to attack the others.