India’s Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu has said that there are at least three possible coronavirus vaccines on which Indian and American companies are working together, reported the news agency ANI. Sandhu in a conversation with the news agency stressed on the close cooperation between the countries on information exchange related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He reiterated the reliability of India for the US and also the world in these times of crisis. Ambassador Sandhu emphasized on India’s role in the global supply chain and said that the country has an important role and this crisis has only reaffirmed it.
Speaking highly of the collaboration between the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ambassador Sandhu recalled other instances when these two health organisations of these countries had come together for a vaccine. Specifically, he named the vaccine development against the Rotavirus which was developed by health scientists across these two nations and how effective it was for India, the US, and the rest of the world.
Ambassador Sandhu also expressed some of the cooperation the US government has shown in the evacuation effort by the Indian government for its citizens stranded in the US post the lockdown across the world.
The Vande Bharat mission launched for the evacuation of Indian nationals started in San Francisco when flights took off for Mumbai and Hyderabad. It will be followed by a flight from New York to Mumbai and Ahmedabad on May 10.
This is not the first time during the Covid-19 pandemic when India and the US have come together for each other’s help. Last month, when the US President Donald Trump had asked India to export Hydroxychloroquine– a drug he touted effective in prophylaxis of the Coronavirus infection, New Delhi readily agreed for it.
President Trump had thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had said that the help will not be forgotten in the India-US bilateral relationship. On the other hand, the Trump administration has assisted New Delhi with $5.9 million in efforts to combat the Coronavirus.
