India- US discuss Vaccine Partnership

External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a meeting in Washington on May 28, 2021.

Highlights

Both of them held a productive discussion on various aspects of bilateral cooperation and regional & global issues. They discussed Indo Pacific and Quad, Myanmar matter, Afghanistan matter and UNSC matters. Meeting also focused on “Indo-US vaccine partnership”.

Indo-US Vaccine Partnership

The partnership aims to expand access and ensure supply of the vaccines. Following the meeting, Government of United States redirected orders of critical vaccine manufacturing supplies. This now allow India to make over 20 million additional doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

India- US cooperation on Covid-19

USA had also announced to send 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to other nations, from June 2021, fighting pandemic. US government also provided over USD 500 million as relief supplies to India to strengthen its fight against pandemic.

AstraZeneca plc

The British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company has developed the Oxford-Astrazeneca covid-19 vaccine. It is headquartered at Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. Its portfolio includes products for major diseases in fields of oncology, cardiovascular, infection, gastrointestinal, neuroscience and respiratory.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2021