S Jaishankar moots India-US vaccine partnership in talks with US NSA

The minister also had a talked with the co-chairs of the House India Caucus

The partnership between India and the United States on Covid-19 vaccines will “make a real difference”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said after a meeting with President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Washington D.C.

Jaishankar is currently on a tour to Washington D.C. and one of the main objectives of his visit is to seek Biden Administration’s support to make up for the shortages of the anti-Covid-19 vaccines in India.

“India-US vaccine partnership can make a real difference,” the External Affairs Minister posted on Twitter, after his meeting with the United States National Security Advisor.

Jaishankar conveyed to Sullivan appreciation on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for the Biden Administration’s support to New Delhi to respond to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that wreaked havoc across India.

Also read: S Jaishankar should clinch a lasting agreement with the US to battle Covid-19

The US late last month and early this month sent aircraft carrying oxygen concentrators, cylinders, medicines, masks and other medical equipment to help contain the surge in the SARS-CoV-2 infection in India. The readout issued by the White House on Jaishankar-Sullivan meeting referred to the “deliveries of over $500 million in Covid-19 relief supplies from the US federal and state governments, US companies and from private citizens across America for the people of India” in the recent weeks.

The US of late announced that it would start sending out from the next month 60 million doses of the anti-Covid-19 vaccines developed by the Oxford University and the AstraZeneca plc to other countries. The US President, himself, said on May 5 that about 10 per cent of the AstraZeneca vaccines in the possession of the American Government would be sent out to India, Brazil and other countries by July 4. He again said on May 17 that the US would send out an additional 20 million doses of the anti-Covid-19 vaccines, not just the ones developed by AstraZeneca, but also the ones from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

New Delhi expects that a large share of the vaccines to be sent out by the US will come to India and partially help make up for the shortages of the jabs.

Jaishankar is expected to request the senior US Government officials to expedite the delivery of the vaccines that would be earmarked for India.

AstraZeneca has not asked for authorisation for use of its vaccine in the US, hence it is unlikely to be used over the next few months for inoculating the Americans. But unless the US Food and Drug Administration conducts a quality check on the vaccine made in plants in America, the Biden Administration will not be able to start sending out the doses to any foreign country.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) is producing the vaccine developed by the Oxford University and AstraZeneca and it is known in the country as Covishield. It has been cleared for emergency use by the Drug Controller General of India and is widely used to inoculate people in the country, along with Covaxin developed by the Bharat Biotech.

Sullivan tweeted after his meeting with Jaishankar that people-to-people ties and shared values were the foundation of the partnership between India and the US and would help end the Covid-19 pandemic, apart from supporting “a free and open Indo-Pacific” and leading the world in responding to challenges posed by climate change.

Jaishankar is likely to discuss the India-US vaccine partnership when he would meet his counterpart and Biden’s Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, too.

“The number one question on everybody’s mind today is Covid, and the worry which people have — do we have accessible, affordable vaccines? Now, we can’t have a world which is part-vaccinated and part-neglected, because that is not going to be safe,” the External Affairs Minister said during a virtual conversation with former US National Security Advisor Gen H R McMaster held by the Hoover Institution of Stanford University last Wednesday.

Also read: NSA Jake Sullivan and EAM S Jaishankar meet to review India-US partnership

The Modi Government itself sent out 107.15 lakh doses of the Made-in-India vaccines to foreign nations as grant till April 16, in addition to the 357.92 lakh doses exported commercially and 198.628 lakh doses as a contribution to the Covax initiative of the World Health Organization, Gavi – The Vaccine Alliance and others to ensure equitable access to anti-Covid-19 vaccines around the world. It, however, paused its “Vaccine-Maitri” initiative after the shortage of the jabs came to the fore and slowed down the inoculation programme in India.

Jaishankar is also likely to discuss with Blinken the issue of US restrictions on the export of raw materials required for the production of vaccines. The Biden Administration had earlier this year invoked the US Defence Production Act (DPA) to impose restrictions on the export of some raw materials required for the production of the Covid-19 vaccines. The move had been aimed at ramping up production and increasing the availability of vaccines in the US. But it also slowed down production of the vaccines in India.

Adar Poonawala, the Chief Executive Officer of the SII, had last month taken to Twitter to urge the US Government to lift the embargo on the export of raw materials required to make vaccines in India – like reagents, plastic tubing material, nano-filters and bioreactor bags. After the second Covid-19 wave hit India, the Biden Administration last month diverted its pending orders with the US companies for some of the raw materials required for the production of vaccines to the South Asian nation. India, however, is still insisting on an assurance from the US for an uninterrupted supply of raw materials.

“(It is) Critical to ramp up the vaccine supply chain to ensure greater production and fairer distribution,” Jaishankar tweeted after a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier this week in New York.

The External Affairs Minister is also likely to have meetings with top executives of the US companies making and supplying anti-Covid-19 vaccines as well as the raw materials required for producing the jabs.