Stressing upon the need for greater international synergy in humanitarian and disaster assistance, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday called for South-South co-operation and highlighted India’s role in the fight against the corona pandemic.
Making this point in a virtual meeting of the Raisina Dialogue here, the minister said even though South-South co-operation was there for a while but with increased globalisation it was imperative to change those fancy words into practical initiatives.
Underlining India’s role in providing Covid-19 vaccinations to several countries, Jaishankar said even before the pandemic India was involved in humanitarian assistance, disaster resistance to all. “We have demonstrated in a practical manner, our belief that the world is a family," he said.
His remarks came in the backdrop of New Delhi supplying the covid vaccine to more than 80 countries. Moreover, more than 6.45 crore vaccines were exported as part of the Vaccine Maitri initiative.
Vaccine Maitri is a humanitarian initiative undertaken by India to provide Made-in-India COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world. The government had started providing the vaccines to other countries in January this year.
Elaborating upon India’s role, he said the government is practical and delivery-oriented.
“We delivered vaccines to a lot of countries. But even before the pandemic, if you look in terms of humanitarian assistance, whether it was an earthquake in Nepal, or a civil war in Yemen, or a cyclone in Mozambique, or a typhoon in Fiji, or a mudslide in Sri Lanka, or whether it is taking the Paris agenda forward through initiatives like the International Solar Alliance, or how to respond collectively towards disaster resilience," he said.
The theme of the Raisina Dialogue organized by the ministry of external affairs and the Observer Research this year is ”Viral World: Outbreaks, Outliers and Out of Control".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame and Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen and Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, will also participate in the conference.
The three-day Raisina Dialogue starting Tuesday will have 50 sessions with the participation of 150 speakers from 50 countries and multilateral organizations.