India will begin Friday trading of Covid-19 vaccines in Brazil and Morocco, followed by Saudi Arabia and South Africa, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to burn his credentials as a key world leader.
“There is a huge international demand for our vaccines,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla told Bloomberg TV in an interview. “We look forward to seeing more world players cooperating with their Indian counterparts in the pharmacy and health care sectors. This is likely to go beyond the relocation of parts of supply chains to India. We look forward to seeing collaborations, manufacturing and R&D links in this field. “
Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla discusses the vaccine distribution in India and its links to the new US administration, in an interview with Risomad Salamat of Bloomberg.
Mass transmission of vaccines begins in India despite safety concerns
The inoculations exported so far have been manufactured by Serum Institute of India Ltd., the world’s largest manufacturer of volume vaccines, with which it has collaborated AstraZeneca Plc will make at least a billion doses. Brazil has the third largest coronavirus epidemic in the world, behind India and the United States and has achieved a late start of its vaccination campaign, with the rest of Latin American colleagues, including Mexico and Argentina.
Supply chains
India hopes to host global drug supply chains and will work with President Joe Biden’s administration in building trade and security ties, Shringla said.
Last year, Modi promised that India’s vaccine manufacturing and manufacturing capacity “would be used to help all of humanity fight the Covid-19 pandemic and it is consistent with this view that we have responded positively to the requests for supply of vaccines manufactured in India from all countries around the world, ”Shringla said.
The United Kingdom, Belgium, is among the nations looking for the cheapest vaccines made in India
India began launching coronavirus vaccine at home on January 16, using Serum Covishield and its inoculation developed Bharat Biotech International Ltd. and on Wednesday they began sending vaccines to six neighboring countries: Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Maldives and Seychelles. He is also awaiting regulatory clearances from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Mauritius to send the shots, the Indian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
India says it can increase its production of Covid-19 vaccines to 500 million a month for export as it generates interest from the UK, Belgium and Middle East and African countries seeking access to more inoculations. economic.
Business talks
The commercial supply of Indian vaccines will go to several other countries in Africa, Latin America, the Pacific island states and the United Nations, Shringla said. While the initiative is part of India’s economic “self-confidence” campaign, the country hopes to work with the US to build “supply chains for medicines, sensitive technologies and minerals”.
India hopes to restart trade talks with the United States and “is willing to look at a limited trade deal,” followed by a global deal, the foreign secretary added. The United States is India’s largest trading partner with bilateral trade of $ 150 billion in 2019.
New Delhi also hopes to work with Biden to strengthen maritime security in the Indo-Pacific and combat terrorism, Shringla said.
India is in talks with China to “effect a possible decoupling. This process is underway at the moment,” he said. “We are clear, at the level of our senior management, that we will do everything possible to maintain this dialogue and we will do everything possible to achieve a resolution that is in the best interests of both countries.”
India’s border conflict with China with thousands of troops stationed at its Himalayan borders has been at a standstill since May last year unresolved despite several rounds of military and diplomatic talks.
– With the assistance of Adrian Wong
(Updates everywhere with details)