India says no third party involved in supply of vaccines to Paraguay

In a bid to steer clear of Beijing-Taipei row, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Thursday said that India had supplied the Covid-19 vaccine doses to Paraguay following a request from the South American nation without any involvement of a ‘third party.'

New Delhi subtly contradicted Taipei’s claim that it had persuaded India to provide vaccines to Paraguay after Beijing had sought South American nations to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan if it wanted the shots from China.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a discussion with his counterpart in Paraguay, Eladio Loizaga Caballero, who requested him for supply of the Covid-19 vaccines. Jaishankar responded positively and a consignment of Covaxin, a Made-in-India vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, was sent to Asunción. “I would like to confirm that no third party was involved in this,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said.

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India shipped 100,000 doses of Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech Limited to Paraguay. His statement contradicted the claim made by Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. Wu recently said that Beijing had tried to make Paraguay sever its diplomatic relations with Taiwan in lieu of Covid-19 vaccines from China.

The One-China policy recognises only the People's Republic of China, which came into existence in 1949 after the communists defeated the nationalists in the civil war of China. It does not recognize the existence of Taiwan (or the Republic of China), where the nationalists retreated to and based the seat of their government after losing to the communists. India, like most of the other nations, has been adhering to One-China policy since 1949, recognising only the People's Republic of China.

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India, like most of the other countries, does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. India-Taipei Association, which is headed by a diplomat, functions as a de facto embassy of India in Taipei. Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) in New Delhi is the de facto diplomatic and consular mission of Taiwan in India.

Paraguay is one of the few countries having formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Wu said that Taipei had got in touch with the US, Japan and India after Beijing had sought to make Paraguay sever its diplomatic relations with Taiwan with the offer of supplying Covid-19 vaccines made in China to the South American nation.

India already sent 100,000 vaccines to Paraguay and another consignment of similar numbers of doses would be sent later, sources in New Delhi said.