Russian Foreign Min Lavrov to visit India in April, prepare ground for India-Russia summit

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Thursday, April 1 said that the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit New Delhi from April 5-6. According to the reports by ANI, after India, Lavrov will visit Pakistan from April 6-7. This comes after Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla visited Russia in February this year. Shringla met Lavrov and discussed a wide-ranging Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between the two countries.

During the briefing, the spokesperson said, “On April 5-6, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will pay a working visit to New Delhi, during which he will hold talks with his counterpart (External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar)”. He further said, “The heads of the foreign affairs agencies will discuss the current state of bilateral relations, the preparation of the upcoming high-level meeting this year, including cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, will consider key topics on the regional, global agenda, assess approaches to the interaction between Russia and India on the international arena, including at the UN, BRICS”. 

Russia approves another vaccine

Russia has registered “world’s first” coronavirus vaccine for animals, said the country’s agriculture oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzo in a statement on March 31. It is also described as an essential step towards disrupting mutations. Russia also said on Wednesday that mass production of the COVID-19 vaccine for animals could begin as early as April. The oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor said that the vaccine called Carnivak-Cov has been tested at the beginning of October 2020 on dogs, cats, mink, foxes and other animals and was proven to be effective.

In a statement deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor, Konstantin Savenkov hailed the ‘first and only’ coronavirus vaccine and noted that all test animals that were vaccinated have developed antibodies to coronavirus in “100 per cent of cases.” Rosselkhoznadzor said that the development of its shot would further continue mutations in animals. It also cited the decision of Denmark to cull 15 million mink in 2020 after some were found to be carrying a mutated virus variant.

(Image Credits: AP)