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Sweden plans to ask European Union to investigate origin of Covid-19, likely further straining relations with China
- Sweden’s health minister, Lena Hallengren, says an investigation is important to know ‘the origin and spread of the coronavirus’
- Sweden’s ties with China are already tense; Stockholm has repeatedly asked for Beijing’s release of bookseller Gui Minhai
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Sweden is planning to ask the European Union to probe the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, in a move that would potentially add further strain onto the Nordic nation’s already tense relations with China.
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This follows similar remarks made by US, Australian and German leaders who demanded further information on the virus’s origin from the Beijing authorities, who have insisted the task should be left to scientists, not politicians.
“When the global situation of Covid-19 is under control, it is both reasonable and important that an international, independent investigation be conducted to gain knowledge about the origin and spread of the coronavirus,” Sweden’s health minister Lena Hallengren wrote in a reply to the parliament on Wednesday.
“It is also important that the entire international community’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the World Health Organisation, is [to be] investigated,” said Hallengren. “Sweden is happy to raise this issue within the framework of EU cooperation.”
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Sweden’s foreign minister Ann Linde suggested that any investigation in the World Health Organisation (WHO) should take place after the pandemic is over.
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