Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cautioned that in the fight against corona pandemic the world is still “underprepared” and called for a united global approach to face the challenge.
He also called for changing the mindset in bracing for future threats and called for human centric approach in dealing with them.
Making this assertion here while inaugurating the sixth edition of the Raisina Dialogue, he also said the world still faced violence in many facets, especially proxy war and terrorism, despite creation of several international bodies after the Second World War.
In his address delivered virtually, Modi said the four-day Raisina Dialogue was taking place at a watershed moment in human history.
“A global pandemic has been ravaging the world for over a year. The last such global pandemic was a century ago,” he said.
“During this pandemic, in our own humble way, within our own limited resources, we in India have tried to walk the talk. We have tried to protect our own 1.3 billion citizens from the pandemic. At the same time, we have also tried to support pandemic response efforts of others,” he said.
Highlighting India’s role in the fight against corona pandemic, the Prime Minister said, “We understand fully, that mankind will not defeat the pandemic unless all of us, everywhere, regardless of the colour of our passports, come out of it. That is why, this year, despite many constraints, we have supplied vaccines to over 80 countries.”
In his nearly ten-minute address, Modi said, “Although, humanity has faced many infectious diseases since then. The world today is underprepared to handle Covid pandemic. Our scientist, researchers and industry have answered some questions.
Many solutions have emerged and many more are yet to come.”
But as global thinkers and leaders, we must ask ourselves some more questions. Why did it come to this? Is it perhaps because in race of economic development, the concern for welfare for humanity was left behind? The answer to many such questions can be found in our recent past, he observed.
More than 150 speakers from 50 countries will share their opinions during the four-day conference.
The Raisina Dialogue is being held virtually this time due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It is India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics and is being hosted by the think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
The theme for the 2021 conference is “#ViralWorld: Outbreaks, Outliers and Out of Control”.