COVID-19 Diplomacy: MEA Briefs Over 190 Diplomatic Missions On COVID-19 Management And Vaccine Development

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday (6 November) organised a briefing session on COVID-19 related issues for diplomatic missions and international organisations in New Delhi.

The MEA briefed more than 190 heads of diplomatic missions and international organisations and their representatives on India’s management of COVID-19, its vaccine development programme, software and related issues of vaccine delivery system and international cooperation, reports Economic Times.

Since March 2020, India has proactively engaged with its partner countries in our joint fight against COVID-19 by supplying medicines, diagnostic kits and medical equipment as well as by organizing online training programmes for testing and case management, the MEA said in a statement.

As its vaccine development programme progressed, India organized training programmes on clinical trials for neighbouring countries in which nearly 90 experts from 8 countries participated.

The MEA said that India was ready to expand these cooperation programmes with the neighbouring and other interested countries.

The MEA-organised outreach saw the participating delegates being briefed by Dr Vinod K Paul, Member, NITI Aayog; Professor K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor; Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan; Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology; Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology; Dr Shekhar Mande, Director General of Council for Scientific & Industrial Research; and Abhishek Singh, President & CEO of E-Governance Division of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

India will also organise a tour of heads of diplomatic missions and international organisations to Pune where they can visit the institutions engaged in COVID-19 related research and vaccine development programmes, the MEA said.