India did its best to supply Covid-19 vaccine to neighbours: Indian high commissioner
India has done its best to supply Covid-19 vaccines to its neighbours, said Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami, at a webinar today.
In response to a comment that "vaccine diplomacy" is at play in reference to India's halt of exporting Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, the Indian diplomat said the agreement was not between the governments of India and Bangladesh, but rather between the Serum Institute of India, Beximco and Bangladesh government.
Alternatively, he said, India had offered third stage trial of Covaxin and subsequently its co-production, but that remains on table.
"Of course, this is Bangladesh's decision.
"It should be recognised that there is a major crisis underway in India," he said, referring to the severe surge in Covid-19 cases that reached 3.84 million, while more than two lakh people have died.
The situation has led to a shortage of oxygen and seats in the hospitals.
"India is trying its best to boost production of COVID-19 vaccines, but that's now dependent on the availability of raw materials," he said.
The US has a ban on raw materials under its Defence Production Act (DPA) for Indian vaccine manufacturers, but is now moving to export it to India given the current situation in India where vaccine demand is rising sharp.
Doraiswami was addressing the virtual webinar titled "Bangladesh India Relations: Prognosis for the Future" organised by COSMOS Foundation.
Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Bangladesh's former foreign affairs adviser; Tariq A Karim, former ambassador; Prof C Raja Mohan, director at the Institute of South Asian Studies of National University of Singapore; Prof Imtiaz Ahmed of Dhaka University; Krishnan Srinivasan, former foreign secretary of India; Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Maj Gen (Retd) ANM Muniruzzaman, president of Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies; Dr Fahmida Khatun, executive director of CPD and Brig Gen (Retd) Shahedul Anam Khan also spoke at the event moderated by COSMOS Foundation Chairman Enayetullah Khan.
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