Covid-19 crisis: Jaishankar's main agenda behind US visit — vaccines for India and its neighbours

The External Affairs Minister is scheduled to visit the US from May 24 on a four-day visit

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is travelling to the United States on Monday, amid a severe vaccine shortage in India, to finalise supply deals with vaccine makers and meet top officials, The Indian Express reported.

Sources told the publication that Jaishankar's primary objective is to "persuade the US to send as many vaccines as possible to India and its neighbours". Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh have sought assistance from Jaishankar in acquiring more vaccines from the US.

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His visit comes days after US President Joe Biden announced that the US will ship as many as 20 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccines to countries in need by June-end, along with 60 million doses of AstraZeneca. Biden's statement does not provide details about how much of this will go to India.

Jaishankar will also meet Antony Blinken, whom he met earlier this month on the sidelines of the G-7 summit when the two leaders discussed India's Covid situation, Indo-Pacific relations and climate issues.

India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Sandhu, has been pushing the Biden administration to provide assistance to India. Sandhu recently held meetings with top US officials, including Dr Anthony Faucii and US State Department Coordinator for Global Covid Response and Health Security Gayle Smith.

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Not just that, the ambassador met with top officials of vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and J&J Chairman Alex Gorsky.

Recently, Charge D'Affaires of the US embassy, Daniel B Smith, said the US was looking at joint production of Johnson and Johnson's Covid-19 vaccines in India and ways to help manufacturers like the Serum Institute of India (SII) to boost production.

As India was facing a rapid increase in coronavirus infections, the US sent six plane-loads of life-saving supplies in support of the country's fight against the pandemic.

Earlier this month, the US sent to India raw materials for vaccine production which it said would enable the manufacture of 20 million doses of the Covishield vaccines.