New Delhi, Jan 31: India’s health diplomacy is yielding unexpected results with the United States now joining the United Nations in lauding New Delhi’s vaccine heft. On Friday, the newly-appointed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a conversation with External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, nailed Covid-19 vaccinations as a key dimension of ties during the Joe Biden presidency.
“Warm conversation with Secretary of State @SecBlinken. Congratulated him on his appointment. Look forward to working with him again. Agreed that we could build further on the solid foundation of our partnership. Also discussed our efforts at combating the Covid-19 pandemic,” tweeted Jaishankar.
The dialogue between the two top diplomats follows an unexpected praise about India’s global role in vaccinations by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
“I would like to say how much we count on India. I mean, India has one of the most advanced pharmaceutical industries. India played a very important role in the production of generics for use that was a very important element of democratisation of access to medicines all over the world,” Guterres said during a media interaction in New York on Friday.
He added: “And we strongly hope that India will have all the instruments that are necessary to play a major role in making sure that a global vaccination campaign becomes possible. I think that the production capacity of India is one of the best assets the world has today, and I hope the world understands that it must be fully used.”
As IndiaNarrative.com reported earlier, nearly a dozen vaccines are in the pipeline in India. The vaccine factory of the world is not only developing indigenous vaccines but also manufacturing vaccines developed by MNCs. The line-up is such that a series of launches will take place from India right till the end of 2021.
India has in the past few days supplied millions of Covid-19 vaccines to countries in South Asia, South America, Africa, West Asia, as well as the Pacific Island states.
After Brazil, Mexico has become the second Latin American country that will be getting an India-made vaccine to inoculate its frontline workers amid the surging Covid-19 pandemic in the country. – IANS
