India, US discuss supply of Covid-19 vaccines

Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla and the acting envoy of the United States in New Delhi, Daniel B Smith discussed the supply of the Covid-19 vaccines that President Joe Biden’s administration in Washington D.C. promised to send out to India.

Apart from discussing the Covid-19 situation in India and the US and bilateral cooperation in combatting the pandemic, Foreign Secretary and the Chargé D’Affaires of the American Embassy in New Delhi also discussed “regional issues”, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, posted on Twitter.

“Pleased to meet with FS Shringla today to discuss opportunities for closer #USIndia cooperation on combating the pandemic, and further expanding the close ties between the American and Indian people,” tweeted Smith after his meeting with Foreign Secretary.

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The Biden Administration on June 3 last announced the allocation of the total 25 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines, which the US would send out as the first tranche of the total 80 million doses it pledged to donate to other countries.

India is the only country, which would receive vaccines from both the two components of the first tranche of the US donations – directly as well as through the Covax, an initiative of the World Health Organization, Gavi The Vaccine Alliance and the others to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 jabs around the world.

But, in terms of the number of doses, India is still unlikely to get much out of the first tranche of the vaccines donated by the US.

A senior White House official had on June 4 stated that the Biden Administration would discuss with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi before deciding on the exact number of Covid-19 vaccines India would get out of the doses the United States would donate to other countries from its own stockpile.

China’s belligerence along its Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India in eastern Ladakh and the imminent withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan are among the regional issues discussed during the meeting, a source in New Delhi said.