WHO Pandemic Agreement and India: At the UN High-Level Meeting, India Seeks Equitable Access Within a Framework of National Sovereignty

At the United Nations High-Level Meeting (UN HLM) in New York in September 2026, India made official remarks on the Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) — part of the emerging legal regime led by the WHO Pandemic Agreement (PA). India backed stronger preparedness but set two conditions: equitable access to drugs, vaccines and therapeutics with global public goods such as digital infrastructure, and respect for national sovereignty and the primacy of member states, declaring that “Global Solidarity must be demonstrated through action”. The United States rejected the Declaration, calling the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system and WHO’s role in declaring pandemics a challenge to its national interests.