Prime Minister Narendra Modi with world leaders at the G20 Italy Summit in Rome
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his remarks at the G20 meeting in Rome on Saturday, highlighted India's contribution to fighting against the Covid-19 pandemic, said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
In a session briefing reporters on Modi's engagements in Rome, Shringla said that the prime minister also stressed the need for facilitating international travel and spoke about having a mechanism of mutual recognition of vaccine certification as a means for this.
Shringla said that WHO's emergency use authorization approval for Covaxin will facilitate the process of India helping other countries fight the pandemic too.
The Foreign Secretary added, "PM conveyed we are ready to produce over 5 billion vaccine doses by end of next year; will be available not only for us but for world."
A technical advisory group of the UN health agency will meet on November 3 to conduct a final “risk-benefit assessment” for Emergency Use Listing of Covaxin. Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covishield are the two widely used vaccines in India.
Modi also highlighted India's medical supply to over 150 countries and its contribution in maintaining the global supply chain during the pandemic.
He made these remarks during his intervention at the "global economy and global health" session at the G20 meet, Shringla said.
Stressing on the need for resilient global supply chains, Prime Minister Modi spoke about India's bold economic reforms and invited G20 nations to make India their partner in economic recovery and supply chain diversification.
Modi also spoke about the "One Earth, One Health" vision in the context of fighting the pandemic and future global health issues, Shringla added.
(with PTI inputs)
