FSM Information Services
Press Release
While Delivering Additional Medical Supplies, Ambassador Huang Promises FSM to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine; “When the development and deployment of the vaccine is available in China…we will make it an international public good for everyone,” Ambassador Huang says
PALIKIR, Pohnpei—On July 24th, 2020, the Honorable Livingston A. Taulung, Secretary of the Department of Health & Social Affairs and Chair of the Federated States of Micronesia’s (FSM’s) COVID-19 Task Force, and the Honorable Ricky F. Cantero, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, received His Excellency Huang Zheng, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China (China), who handed-over an additional ten (10) boxes of personal protection equipment (PPE) donated to the FSM by Shandong Province. The Ambassador promised that additional COVID-19 support was en route, and that when a vaccine is available that the FSM will receive it.
“We will do everything we can to help the FSM’s people to win this global battle against this global Pandemic, which is the common enemy of humankind,” Ambassador Huang said in his remarks. “When the development and deployment of [a] vaccine is available in China, we will make it an international public good for everyone. …It will be offered as assistance to developing countries, including the FSM, who need these vaccines the most.”
“I am very pleased to hear that your Government is working very hard to make sure that a vaccine is produced and then shared with the rest of the world,” Secretary Taulung said in his remarks. “Today’s assistance from Shandong will supplement and complement what China has already provided.”
The cumulative total of COVID-19 related Chinese assistance to the FSM is approximately three hundred and twenty thousand dollars ($320,000), with $170,000 in cash donations to the FSM National Government and Pohnpei State Government and the remaining $150,000 through medical supplies. The FSM National Government is deeply appreciative of Chinese assistance in helping the Nation to prevent COVID-19’s arrival and/or mitigating its affects should it arrive.
China and the FSM have enjoyed nearly thirty-one (31) years of formal diplomatic relations. September 11th, 2020, will mark the 31st anniversary of the Great Friendship and comprehensive partnership between the FSM and China.
