High dose of Vaccine Diplomacy

Taking the ‘vaccine diplomacy’ forward India has supplied Covid19 vaccines to two neighbouring and friendly countries—Bhutan and Maldives.

A consignment containing 150,000 doses of Covishield vaccines has reached Thimphu on January 21, 2021. Bhutan is the first country to receive Government of India’s gift of the Covishield vaccines, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. India and Bhutan share unique and special bilateral relations, based on trust, goodwill and mutual understanding and characterised by close, historical and cultural linkages at the people’s level.

In line with India-Bhutan unique and special relations, the Centre ensured continuous supply of trade and essential items to Bhutan, despite Covid-19 related lock-downs. So far, the Government of India has provided essential medicines and medical supplies, including Paracetamol, Hydroxychloroquine, PPEs, N95 masks, X-ray machine and test kits worth over Indian currency Rs 2.8 Crore to the Royal Government of Bhutan. India has also entered into an “Air Travel Arrangement” or “Transport Bubble” agreement with Bhutan.

The Modi government has also facilitated the repatriation of over 2000 Bhutanese nationals stranded in India’s various parts. Also, it facilitated the repatriation of 14 Bhutanese nationals stranded in other countries through Vande Bharat flights to India and their onward journey to Bhutan. The Government has supplied a consignment containing 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines to reach Male on January 20, Wednesday.

India’s vaccine diplomacy is yet another testament to its Neighbourhood First Policy, in which the Maldives occupies a unique and central place. This is reciprocated in full measure by the ‘India First’ Policy of the Government of Maldives. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the Maldives in June 2019 rightly said Neighbourhood First is our priority, and in the neighbourhood Maldives is the priority’.

The delivery of these vaccines in the Maldives fulfils the commitment made by Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla during his visit to the Maldives in November 2020 when he announced that as a close partner and friend, India would accord priority to the Maldives for providing vaccines, whenever these vaccines are ready.

Since the Maldives has a population of about 500,000, the donation will cover the vaccination requirement of a significant percentage of the population. In addition, the Government of Maldives proposes to purchase 300,000 doses of vaccines from SII at commercial rates.

It is worth mentioning that right from the start of the Covid pandemic, India has worked very closely with the Maldives in dealing with the pandemic.

Among all neighbours, Maldives was the first and one of the largest beneficiaries of New Delhi’s Covid-related assistance. This includes assistance in the evacuation of Maldives nationals from Wuhan, the supply of essential medicines and food items and deployment of a 14 member Rapid Response Team consisting of doctors and paramedics in March 2020 to guide and train the Maldivian authorities and personnel in tackling Corona threat.

When international borders were closed due to the pandemic in April 2020, Operation ‘Sanjeevani’ was launched to meet Maldives’ medicine requirements. Under this operation, a special IAF plane airlifted 6.2 tonnes of essential medical supplies from India to the Maldives.

Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has publicly acknowledged that India has been the “first and the best responder” for the Maldives during this crisis. It is noteworthy that Indian assistance comes without any pre-conditions or expectations. To support the Maldives’ tourism industry, which is the main revenue earner for the Government of Maldives, it was decided to create an air travel bubble with the Maldives in August 2020. The Maldives was the first country in South Asia where an air travel bubble (with India) was established. The air bubble has been very successful, and, at present, there are 40 flights to the Maldives from 6 different Indian cities.

Following the air bubble creation with the Maldives, with more than 60,000 tourist arrivals, India now occupies the Number One spot as a tourist source in the Maldives. China occupied this position before the Covid pandemic. In September 2020, India extended urgent financial assistance of US$ 250 million to the Maldives through investment by SBI. This was the first assistance package of such a magnitude announced by the Government to any country to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. It was also decided to launch a direct cargo ferry service between India and Maldives to ensure a reliable and predictable supply chain for the Maldives and boost bilateral trade. An announcement to commence the service was made by External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar in August 2020.

The cargo ferry service’s maiden journey was flagged off by Minister of Shipping of India and Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation of Maldives in September 2020.