COVID-19 UN criteria for sovereignty

The United Nations should adopt what I call the COVID-19 criteria as a basis for recognising a nation as an independent and sovereign state going forward.

To be recognised as a sovereign nation you must have a gross domestic product (GDP) that is at least 50 times the size of your population. For instance, a country of 200 million people should at the very least have a GDP of $1 trillion

A nation should be able to meet at least 70 percent of its food needs through domestic production

A nation must be self-sufficient when it comes to the production of health and medical equipment

A nation must be self-sufficient when it comes to the production of pharmaceutical drugs

A nation should have the capacity to stockpile at least six months’ worth of food supplies in case of an emergency

A nation should have foreign reserves that are at least half the size of its GDP

A nation must be able to produce the necessary equipment required to defend itself and provide security

Every nation must spend at least a quarter of its annual budget on education and training

Every nation must have a tax-to-GDP ratio of no less than 25 percent

Every nation’s budget must be at least one tenth of its GDP. For instance, a nation with a GDP of $1 trillion should have an annual budget of at least $100 billion.