India COVID-19 vaccine for all UN peacekeepers |
India will be donating 200 thousand doses of Covid-19 vaccines for the United Nations peacekeeping troops deployed in the conflict zones around the world. Making the announcement, Indian External Affairs Minister, Dr. S Jaishankar, on 17th February called upon all the nations to desist from vaccine nationalism. His appeal came even as the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, pointed out that only 10 countries had so far administered 75% of all the vaccines, while more than 130 countries had not yet received a single dose. Guterres posted on Twitter - “Those affected by conflict & (and) insecurity are being left behind. Everyone, everywhere, must be vaccinated as soon as possible”. Dr. Jaishankar participated in a virtual meeting of the Foreign Ministers representing the five permanent and 15 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. The meeting was convened by the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab primarily to discuss access to the Covid-19 vaccines in conflict situations. Indian External Affairs Minister pointed out that India had already supplied Covid-19 vaccines to 25 nations, while it would provide the jabs to 49 other countries soon. He then announced that India would provide the UN with 2,00,000 doses of vaccines exclusively for the UN peacekeepers. Till a week ago, India supplied a total of 22.97 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines to the global community. Of these, 6.47 million doses supplied as a grant, while 16.5 million doses supplied on commercial contracts.
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