By Tulip Mazumdar, BBC Global Health Correspondent
After a good four hours of countries pledging their support for the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United States (US) took just three minutes to launch a scathing attack on the United Nations’ (UN) health agency.
The US didn’t specifically name China, but talked about “at least one member state’s apparent attempt” to “conceal this outbreak”, and said the WHO “must become far more transparent and far more accountable”.
Meanwhile, South Korea and Australia said the assembly should consider giving the WHO more powers, with Australia specifically pointing to greater “inspection powers”. There have been calls for the agency to be mandated to go into countries very early in outbreaks, to carry out independent investigations.
China has said it supports a “comprehensive evaluation” of the global response, but only after the virus is contained. That could take months – or even years.
What is being discussed at the assembly?
The European Union, alongside countries including the UK, Australia and New Zealand, has been pushing for an inquiry into how the pandemic has been handled and what lessons can be learned.
EU spokeswoman Virginie Battu-Henriksson said several key questions needed to be answered as part of any review.
“How did this pandemic spread? What is the epidemiology behind it? All this is absolutely crucial for us going forward to avoid another pandemic of this kind,” she said.
However, she added that now was not the time for “any sort of blame game”.
GETTY IMAGES WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has faced criticism for the agency’s handling of the pandemicA draft resolution calling for a review, to be put to a vote on Tuesday, requires a two-thirds majority to pass.
Last month, an EU report accused China of spreading disinformation about the crisis.
The bloc’s External Action Service said Russia, and to a lesser extent China, had promoted “conspiracy narratives”.
Separately, member states agreed on Monday to delay discussions over granting Taiwan observer status for assembly meetings, with Taipei saying that it would defer its demand until later in the year.
China, which says Taiwan is part of its territory, has blocked Taiwan’s attendance since 2016.
In recent weeks, the US, EU, Japan and several other nations have backed Taiwan’s bid to attend the meeting.
During Monday’s talks, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said excluding Taiwan “further damages” the credibility of the WHO.
What are the accusations against China?
The outbreak first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and was widely reported to have originated in a food market.
Since then, however, some senior US politicians have suggested that the source was a research facility in Wuhan that had been carrying out research on bat coronaviruses. China has dismissed the idea.
Mr Pompeo said earlier this month that there was “a significant amount of evidence” that the virus came from a laboratory in Wuhan. However, in a TV interview with Breitbart on Saturday he appeared to step back, saying “we know it began in Wuhan, but we don’t know from where or from whom”.
The draft resolution mentions identifying “the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts”.
Last month, senior Chinese diplomat Chen Wen told the BBC that demands for an investigation were politically motivated and that such a move would only divert attention and resources away from fighting the virus.
