Raisina Dialogue: Maldives' Foreign Minister hails India's global vaccine efforts

While hailing India's effort to provide vaccine to the world, Maldives' Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said that India is an example of how multilateralism and the idea of a "global village" should function. The Minister was speaking virtually at Raisina Dialogue on Thursday. He also added that India's vaccine deployment was done to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Speaking further in the session titled 'Beyond Covid: Global Public Health after the Pandemic' he mentioned that the pandemic has taught us the first and foremost lesson is the importance of multilateralism. He also added that the way the international community came together initially to fight the pandemic was commendable.

"We are a global village and can't live in isolation. We need to unite our efforts to face these global challenges," added Maldives' Abdulla Shahid. 

While praising the international effort he also made a contrary statement that as the pandemic began and vaccines started rolling out "fracture in the unity" was also observed. Shahid who is on his two-day visit to India currently further said that the country "opened hearts and arms" to the world and the way vaccines were rolled in India and other countries was exemplary. Other country's officials including Sri Lanka's Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Namal Rajapaksa and Bangladesh's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam also praised India for its efforts in dealing with the pandemic.

India's vaccine export campaign

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India has by far provided vaccines to 91 countries which include Canada, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Mauritius, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and UAE. A total of 655.43 lakh of vaccine supply has been done till now. In the past, countries have thanked India for its vaccine contribution. 

Raisina Dialogue 2021

India’s premier conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, Raisina Dialogue aims at addressing the most challenging issues around the global community. This year's conference was the 6th such edition which was integrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India's top leaders including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla were present. Foreign Ministers of several countries including Slovenia, Portugal, Singapore, Romania, Nigeria, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Kenya, Australia, Chile, Iran, Maldives, Bhutan, and Qatar joined the dialogue.