France urges Australia to hold off on launching global investigation into origins of coronavirus

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday told Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to hold off on launching an international investigation into the coronavirus pandemic until the outbreak has settled, as the Australian leader seeks global support for a probe into the virus’ origins.

In phone calls with U.S. President Trump, German Chancellor Angela Markel and Mr. Macron, Mr. Morrison pushed for an independent review of the World Health Organization’s response to the pandemic and early details of the outbreak, which originated in China, and greater cooperation to develop an effective vaccine.

But his efforts have drawn criticism from China, which alleges Australia is “taking instructions” from the U.S. after Mr. Trump publicly announced his intention to freeze funding for the WHO.

France’s leader is now urging Australia to wait until after the pandemic has passed.

“[Mr. Macron] says he agrees that there have been some issues at the start, but that the urgency is for cohesion, that it is no time to talk about this, while reaffirming the need for transparency for all players, not only the WHO,” a government official told Reuters.

Mr. Morrison tweeted Wednesday that he had a “very constructive discussion” with Mr. Trump about their country’s health responses to the coronavirus outbreak.

“We also talked about the WHO & working together to improve the transparency & effectiveness of the international responses to pandemics,” he continued.

Frustration has been mounting against the WHO’s response to the pandemic, with some nations claiming the United Nations-backed organization was too slow to respond.

There have been over 2.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported around the world, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, and more than 178,000 have died.