Farmers Movement Archive

India will do its best to facilitate vaccine supplies: PM Modi to Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday assured his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau that New Delhi will do its best to facilitate supplies of Covid-19 vaccine sought by Ottawa.“Was happy to receive a call from my friend @JustinTrudeau. Assured him that India would do its best to facilitate supplies of COVID vaccines sought by Canada,” Modi tweeted late on Wednesday night.“We also agreed to continue collaborating on other important issues like Climate Change and the global economic recovery,” he said, without giving details.There was no official word from the Canadian side on the phone conversation, which came close on the heels of a viral video of a Canadian opposition lawmaker questioning minister of public services and procurement Anita Anand on whether she or Trudeau had reached out to Modi for vaccines.Canada’s inoculation drive started with the emergency authorisation of the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine in December, though the number of doses received from that company and Moderna has been far below expectations. The Trudeau government has faced criticism from the opposition and the media over its failure to procure sufficient quantities to inoculate Canadians.However, Anand has told the Canadian media she is confident the situation will soon be remedied. She told CBC News she has “solid confirmation” that Canada will receive six million doses, as announced earlier by Trudeau, by the end of March.Trudeau said in a set of tweets on Tuesday that starting next week, Canada is “expecting hundreds of thousands [of] vaccine doses each week - and that’s just from Pfizer. With these shipments, we remain on track to receive 20 million doses from Pfizer and Moderna this spring.”Three other companies – AstraZeneca, Janssen and Novavax – have submitted their vaccines for review by Canadian authorities, he said. “That is all good news, and those are all reasons to be hopeful, but we can’t let our guards down yet,” he added.Ties between India and Canada took a hit recently when Trudeau extended support to Indian farmers protesting against three farm laws. India pushed back against his comments, describing the protest as an internal matter.

Hindustan Times

10-02-2021

India