New York: After its refusal to India’s request to lift embargo of COVID-19 vaccine raw materials exports created a big outcry in the Indian media and everywhere yesterday, the Joe Biden administration stuck to its ground last night (IST) but said the US understood that the COVID situation in India remains a global concern.
“So we don’t have any specific update to raw materials, but we’ll just reiterate that we understand that the COVID situation in India remains a global concern,” Jalina Porter, Principal Deputy Spokesperson at the US Department of State replied to a pointed question in this regard by a journalist that whether there had been any update in the U.S. position on the raw materials for the vaccine, and any more concrete answer to the requests for the raw materials embargo lifting?
Porter though stressed that the US had continued to work closely with India to facilitate the movement of essential supplies and also address the bottlenecks of their supply chains. “But we’ll also continue to collaborate with our partners in India to battle this at the highest level. We know Secretary Blinken spoke to his counterpart on Tuesday, and we remain deeply engaged with India at all levels as we work to combat this crisis of the pandemic together,” she said.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had had discussions with India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar regarding health cooperation between the two countries in the context of COVID-19. Before that, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawala had tweeted on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the US and request the latter to lift the embargo so as to ramp up the vaccine production “If we are to truly unite in beating this virus…”
However, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price had said on April 22, “What I will say broadly is that the U.S. first and foremost is engaged in an ambitious and effective and, so far, successful effort to vaccinate the American people. That campaign is well underway, and we’re doing that for a couple of reasons.” He had added: “Number one, we have a special responsibility to the American people. Number two, the American people, this country has been hit harder than any other country around the world – more than 550,000 deaths, tens of millions of infections in this country alone.”
But Porter acknowledged: “And as we look to our Indian friends battling this pandemic, we’ll also acknowledge the toll that it’s taking not only on the people of India but as well as all throughout South Asia and, quite frankly, all over the world.”
– global bihari bureau
