Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there will need to be “improvements” made to the World Health Organization in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as questions about China‘s influence.

But one European global health expert is cautioning current geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Beijing could make it “incredibly difficult” to achieve real results.

During a daily briefing with journalists on Tuesday, Trudeau was asked about a vote by WHO member states to launch a review into the organization’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic response and about whether countries like China have too much influence on its workings.

“That balance does need to be looked at carefully. There will be real questions about China in the coming months and years that need to be answered, and we will be part of that,” he said.

Shortly afterwards, Trudeau told members of Parliament in a virtual session that “it is clear that there will need to be improvements to the WHO” and other international bodies in the aftermath of the pandemic.

But what those changes could look like isn’t clear and even reaching a consensus on a review of its response could be contentious given the current global tensions between the U.S. and China.

Ilona Kickbusch was a member of the Ebola interim assessment panel which reviewed the WHO’s response to that outbreak in 2014/2015.

She’s now a founding director and chair of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and told Global News that current geopolitical tensions could make it difficult to come to a path forward that will satisfy both the U.S. and China.

“It’s no use to have a committee and let’s say, appoint eight people and then a group of countries says or one country says, ‘I will never trust the outcome of that committee,’” Kickbusch said.

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“In this case, you know, if this geopolitical spat goes on, it’s going to be incredibly difficult to actually appoint a committee that everybody is going to agree is truly independent.”

The World Health Organization has faced fierce criticism over recent months for its handling of the pandemic, with critics arguing it relied too heavily on questionable Chinese case data and as a result, wasted valuable time in declaring a global pandemic.

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