Valuing close friendship, strong ties: Jaishankar after Indian-made vaccines reach Kuwait

A consignment of Indian-made vaccines arrived in Kuwait in the early hours of Monday, tweeted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, adding that it shows the close friendship and strong ties between the two nations.

"Made in India vaccines now reach Kuwait. Valuing our close friendship and strong ties," tweeted Jaishankar.

India under the 'Vaccine Maitri' initiative has planned to export the vaccines to other countries to inoculate people against the shortfall in the availability of vaccines.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had earlier said that the capacity to produce vaccines of India is one of the 'best assets that the world has today'. To which, Jaishankar replied that the global community can count on the 'Pharmacy of the World'.

In line with its Neighbourhood First policy, India has rolled out Indian-made Covishield vaccines to several countries including Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal to aid the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that India plans to gift vaccine doses to Oman, CARICOM countries, Nicaragua, Pacific Island states.

Srivastava said New Delhi plans to supply one crore or ten million vaccine doses to Africa and ten lakh to United Nations health workers under GAVI's (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) COVAX facility.

India also planned to commercially export coronavirus vaccine to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Canada, Mongolia and other countries.

( With inputs from ANI )