India and Bangladesh must progress together: Indian high commissioner
India and Bangladesh must progress together, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami said today, as India celebrates its 72nd Republic Day.
"I think the larger direction of our friendship is there. We believe that India and Bangladesh must progress together and so, even in the time of this crisis, we have wanted to work as closely as possible with our closest neighbours, particularly Bangladesh," he said.
He said Bangladesh is one of the first countries where India sent vaccines to.
India gifted 20 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, on January 21. On Monday, Beximco Pharmaceuticals brought 50 lakh more, the first consignment of the contracted three crore doses of the vaccine.
"This [supply of vaccine to Bangladesh] is despite the fact that there is considerable demand, that the companies, also from other countries, are procuring vaccines from India," Doraiswami told reporters after a short event commemorating Republic Day at Indian High Commission today.
He said India wanted to ensure that Bangladesh's rollout of vaccine delivery would be as fast as possible.
"Because that is also in our fundamental interest. None of us can be immune alone from this disease as the WHO DG was saying either everybody is immune or nobody is immune," he said.
"So, India can't get immunity alone without immunity in its closest friendly countries -- Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan," he added.
Asked if India is also planning to send the vaccine produced by the Indian company Bharat Biotech, Doraiswami said it is subject to clearance from Bangladesh government.
"We have been working on that for some time. Bharat Biotech vaccine is also here for trials in Bangladesh and we await clearance from your government to allow us trials first. We said we will do trials in Bangladesh and on the basis of data and regulatory approval, we will see," he said.
"But, that is of course your government's decision. We are ready to do anything in Bangladesh…anything that you want," he added.
On resuming India's tourist visas, the Indian envoy said they will open it "hopefully soon".
The Indian health department is now cautious because of the new mutation in coronavirus that came out in December -- a fact that is further delaying the decision of opening tourist visas. Presently, under air bubble agreement, two countries operate limited flights for patients, officials and emergency personnel.
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