The long-running negotiations ended in the small hours of 16 April, when the parties agreed on the text of a landmark agreement to tackle future pandemics. Its aim is to avoid a repeat of the mistakes made during the Covid-19 crisis.

"The peoples of the world made history in Geneva today. By reaching consensus on the agreement on pandemics, they not only set the stage for a multigenerational agreement to make the world safer, but they also showed that multilateralism is alive and well and that in our divided world, nations can still work together to find common ground and a common response to common threats," said WHO head Tedros Adhanom Guebreyesus.

Five years after Covid-19 killed millions of people and devastated economies, a growing sense of urgency loomed over the talks at a time when new health threats lurked, ranging from H5N1 avian flu to measles, smallpox and Ebola.

The latest stage of the negotiations also took place as US foreign aid spending cuts and threats of tariffs on pharmaceuticals cast a new shadow over the talks. | BGNES