China ally Cambodia asks India for COVID-19 vaccine |
In a major development, Cambodia has approached India for COVID-19 vaccines. Cambodia is one of the closest allies of China in the South-East Asian region. The request seems to endorse India as the top notch vaccine maker in the world. Also, it demonstrates that the world believes in the Indian vaccine versus Chinese. Days after receiving 1 million vaccine doses from China in donation, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen himself sought a similar donation from India saying Chinese vaccines won`t be enough for the southeast Asian country. The Cambodian Prime Minister congratulated India for launching, what has been described as the world`s largest vaccination drive, while making the point in a meeting with Indian Ambassador Devyani Khobragade that Cambodia required millions of doses even after the Chinese donation. While Hun Sen had earlier declared that Cambodia would only use WHO-certified vaccines, he later accepted Beijing`s donation of a million doses of China`s Sinopharm vaccine citing the urgency of the situation. China alone can only meet a fraction of Cambodia`s need for vaccines as the ASEAN nation seeks inoculation of 70-80 percent of its total population of 16 million. Cambodia is seen as China`s staunch ally within ASEAN, as a country which aligns with Beijing on all major foreign policy issues and promotes China`s strategic interests.
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