Covid-19: US in damage-control mode, vows help to India

Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla and the American Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman are in touch to work out the specifics, sources said

The United States has promised to help India deal with the raging second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic – after President Joe Biden’s administration in Washington DC drew flak for blocking the supply of raw materials required for augmenting the production of vaccines.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla and the American Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman are in touch to work out the specifics of the US support to India, sources said.

The US Chamber of Commerce recently urged the Biden administration to release the millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses lying unused in storage for shipment to India, Brazil and other nations hit by the pandemic. Several members of the American Congress and the prominent Indian-Americans also called upon the US government to provide India with life-saving medical supplies.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tweeted that the US would “rapidly deploy additional support” to India to deal with the “horrific Covid-19 outbreak”. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also expressed concern over the severe outbreak in India. He tweeted that the Biden administration was “working round the clock to deploy more supplies and support” to India.

“Together, we will fight the global pandemic!” Taranjit Singh Sandhu, New Delhi’s envoy to Washington DC, tweeted on Sunday, thanking the two senior US officials for promising support to India.

Read: Biden administration criticised for not releasing surplus Covid-19 vaccines to India

Blinken and Sullivan took to Twitter to pledge support to New Delhi after the Biden Administration drew flak after its state department defended the restrictions on the export of certain raw materials required for the production of the Covid-19 vaccines in India.

A journalist on April 23 last asked the US State Department spokesperson Ned Price about the possibility of the American government lifting the ban on the export of the raw materials needed for the production of the vaccines. Price responded stating that the US was “first and foremost” engaged in an ambitious and effective and, so far, successful effort to inoculate the Americans. He said that the Biden administration would do as much as it could for the rest of the world, after fulfilling its first obligation to the US citizens.

His comment triggered sharp criticism on social media with some reminding Washington DC of the quick response of the Narendra Modi government to the then US President Donald Trump’s request for Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) tablets to help treat Covid-19-hit Americans.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel too on Sunday promised support to India. She expressed her sympathy over the second Covid-19 wave – just days after lamenting that the European Union leaders had not provided enough support to pharmaceutical companies and thus allowed India to become a major pharma exporter.