Bangladesh to get ‘first’ priority in receiving India’s Covid-19 vaccines: Delhi official

India considers Bangladesh as a priority country among its neighbours to receive Covid-19 vaccine, a government official said on Thursday as India is set to launch world's largest vaccination drive tomorrow.

"In line with India's Neighbourhood First Policy-2021, the neighbouring countries will receive India's vaccines on priority basis…among the neighbours, Bangladesh will certainly get first priority to this end," he added.

When asked about specific date of exporting India's vaccines to Bangladesh, the official familiar with the developments and preferring not to be named avoided giving a direct reply saying, "Bangladesh will get the vaccine soon as it is a priority country for India."

As similar question was asked to Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava during the virtual media briefing on Thursday, he said, "It is too early to give a specific response on the supply of vaccines to other countries as the vaccination process has just started in India."

He said, "India is still assessing production schedules and availability (of vaccines) to take decision in this regard."

In this connection, he referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent speech on India's vaccine cooperation as Modi said, "India's vaccine production and delivery capacity would be used for the benefit of all humanity in fighting this crisis."

Besides, India's Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla while making comments on export of Indian vaccines told media recently that Bangladesh had nothing to be worried about as India would provide the Covid-19 vaccine to Bangladesh on a priority basis.

He added that Bangladesh, as a priority country to India, will receive the vaccine produced in the country from the "very beginning".