The United States is working with India to develop a vaccine to prevent the COVID-19 infection.
“Yeah, we’re working very closely also with India,” the US President Donald Trump told journalists at the Rose Garden of the White House, as he announced the “Operation Warp Speed” to develop a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. He also announced that the US would donate India ventilators to help cure people infected by the COVID-19 virus.
“I am proud to announce that the United States will donate ventilators to our friends in India. We stand with India and @narendramodi during this pandemic,” Trump later posted on Twitter early on Saturday (Indian Standard Time), tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We’re also cooperating on vaccine development. Together we will beat the invisible enemy!”
His tweet came just two days after the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pledged $ 3.6 million assistance to India to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) earlier provided $ 5.9 million to India to help mitigate the outbreak.
Trump was interacting with journalists after announcing the “Operation Warp Speed” to develop and distribute a coronavirus vaccine. A former executive of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, Moncef Slaoui, will lead the mission, while Gen Gustave Perna of the US will serve as Chief Operating Officer.
“So, India has been so great,” he said in response to a question by a journalist from India. “And, as you know, your — your Prime Minister has been a very good friend of mine. I just got back, a short while ago, from India recently. And we’re working very much with India too,” he said, adding: “And we have a tremendous Indian population in the United States. And many of the people that you’re talking about are working on the vaccine too. Great scientists and researchers.”
Trump visited Ahmedabad and New Delhi on his first visit to India as the US President on February 24 and 25 – just weeks before the COVID-19 outbreak hit both the nations in a big way and both had to impose travel and transport restrictions as well as lockdowns in varying degrees to contain the pandemic.
Modi hosted the US President at a “Namaste Trump” rally in a newly-built cricket stadium in Ahmedabad on February 24. The rally was a sequel to the “Howdy! Modi” event, which was held at NRG Stadium in Houston in US on September 22 last year with Trump and Modi appearing before a cheering crowd of nearly 50000 Indian-Americans.
The Prime Minister and the US President held formal talks in New Delhi on February 25.
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