US to work closely with India to facilitate movement of essential supplies, supply chains during COVID-19 surge

US State Department spokeswoman, Jalina Porter on Friday (local time) during a press briefing reaffirmed that US will work closely with India to facilitate movement of essential supplies during COVID-19 surge.

Informing about the update on India's request regarding US position on the embargo on lifting of raw materials for the vaccine, she said, "We have continued to work closely with India to facilitate the movement of essential supplies and also address the bottlenecks of their supply chains. But we'll also continue to collaborate with our partners in India to battle this at the highest level."

"We don't have any specific update to raw materials, but we'll just reiterate that we understand that the COVID situation in India remains a global concern," added Porter.

Earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar regarding the lethal second COVID-19 wave in India.

"We know Secretary Blinken spoke to his counterpart on Tuesday, and we remain deeply engaged with India at all levels as we work to combat this crisis of the pandemic together, said Porter.

Earlier, India and South Africa had proposed to the World Trade Orgsation (WTO) to temporarily lift certain intellectual property barriers and allow countries to locally manufacture COVID-19 diagnostics and vaccines.

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver proposed by India and South Africa in October 2020 would temporarily lift certain intellectual property barriers and allow countries to locally manufacture COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.

( With inputs from ANI )