MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

President Piñera meets PM Johnson and reaffirms UK/Chile close relations

Johnson said he expected to host Piñera in Glasgow next November and the Chilean leader invited the PM to visit his country.

Chilean president Sebastián Piñera in the last leg of his European tour, on Friday met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street, where the two leaders coincided on the significance of jointly addressing current challenges such as the Covid 19 pandemic, --and variants--, climate change and collaboration in a Science Alliance.

Piñera underlined the need to advance with a global treaty against pandemics, including cooperation and exchange of experiences, solidarity with access to diagnosis, treatments and vaccines. PM Johnson congratulated the Chilean leader for the success of his vaccination plan.

As to climate change, UK is hosting the UN Climate Change Conference COP 26 in Glasgow in November when UK will be taking the presidency from Chile COP 25. The two leaders agreed that urgent action is needed to deliver on the Paris Agreement and keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees alive.

They also committed to working closely together ahead of November’s summit to drive forward international action on ending the use of coal and transitioning to renewable energy, restoring nature, and delivering on the US$100bn climate finance pledge.

“We decided to unite forces to change the course of history and achieve strong commitments from countries to avoid the collision course to an environmental holocaust”, commented the Chilean president.

Later the Chilean leader met PM Johnson's main public health advisors to exchange experiences on combating the Covid 19 pandemic, including Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tram and Sir Patrick Vallance, UK government scientific advisor.

During the meeting advances in vaccination plans in Chile and the UK were addressed together with the risks of the Delta variant, and how to combat it, plus new technologies and treatments, and the need to advance in the development of a global collaboration treaty to combat pandemics.

“We met with the Health Minister and his team of experts and technicians that are leading the combat against the pandemic in England, to share experiences, and to make things better”, said Piñera.

Johnson said he expected to host Piñera in Glasgow next November and the Chilean leader invited the PM to visit his country.

The two leaders discussed the shared ambition to boost trade and investment between the UK and Chile, including through the UK joining the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership).

Piñera announced that Chile and UK had agreed on a Science Alliance precisely focused on pandemics, climate change, and the development of new technologies in areas such as vaccines and gnomic sequences.

The UK will support Chile in establishing a Climate Change Observatory, as part of the scientific alliance to collect evidence to promote policies and concrete actions against climate change.

Finally, the Chilean Executive release mentions that Chile and UK relations have been characterized by “openness and fluidity”, be in the political, economic, social, trade, scientific, education, culture and defence fields. In fact, Chile and UK have assistance agreements in defence, security and police affairs, as well as in the exchange of science academics and researchers for cultural promotion and collaboration in Antarctica.