Quad summit likely to give big push to India-made vaccines in war on Covid-19

By SPS Pannu New Delhi, March 10: The first ever Indo-Pacific Quad summit on Friday is likely to give a major thrust to scaling up Indias efforts to provide affordable vaccines to a larger number of countries for stepping up the war against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
The move comes at a time when there is an acute shortage of vaccines worldwide and the poorer countries are unable to secure supplies. India has emerged as the ‘pharmacy of the world’ with the production of two affordable vaccines.
According to a statement issued by the ministry of external affairs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be participating, along with Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga and US President Joseph R. Biden, in the first leaders’ summit of the quadrilateral framework, being held virtually on 12th March.
“The leaders will discuss ongoing efforts to combat Covid-19 pandemic and explore opportunities for collaboration in ensuring safe, equitable and affordable vaccines in the Indo-Pacific region,” the statement said.
India has put up a valiant effort in gifting vaccines to its neighbouring countries to inoculate their frontline workers and also exported stocks worldwide in the ASEAN region, Africa and Latin America to stem the surging Covid-19 tide.
India has also been successful in neutralising China’s coercive vaccine diplomacy by providing smaller as well as developing countries with an alternative that has no strings attached. As many as 25 countries have already received India-made vaccines and another 49 nations are in the queue.