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HomeDiplomacyModi govt holds out on Beijing offer for Covid help, but no...

Modi govt holds out on Beijing offer for Covid help, but no trade bar on private firms

Chinese government has offered to help India as it grapples with a devastating second Covid wave, which has seen the country record over 3 lakh cases daily for a week.

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New Delhi: Indian private companies are allowed to procure critical medical equipment and items from China to aid efforts to check the Covid crisis, but there is no government-to-government initiative on this front on account of bilateral tensions over Ladakh, official sources have said.  

The Chinese government has offered to help India as it grapples with a devastating second Covid wave, which has seen the country record over 3 lakh cases daily for a week, but the Narendra Modi government has not responded to it owing to the border tensions, which also resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers during a clash with Chinese troops last June, sources added Wednesday. 

However, the sources said, procurement from China is taking place between private players and “there is no ban or restriction on importing” medical items from across the border.

Last weekend, SpiceJet airlifted 800 oxygen concentrators from Hong Kong and brought them to Delhi. The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka announced Sunday that another 10,000 would arrive in India in a week. 

China is one of several countries that have extended assistance to India to tackle the Covid pandemic. The assistance spans a wide gamut of Covid-related supplies, from oxygen, to medicines such as remdesivir and tocilizumab, and Covid vaccines.

In light of the offers, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Tuesday that a high-level inter-ministerial group has established the procedure for immediate clearance of materials coming from abroad.

Sources said the first shipment from the US as part of Washington’s assistance is expected to arrive Thursday-Friday, with the first batch of Russia’s Covid vaccine Sputnik V expected by the end of this month too.


Also Read: Countries failed in a global response to prevent India’s ‘tragic’ Covid crisis, Dr Fauci says


‘Chosen not to respond’

On Monday, the Chinese government said it has offered to help India in its battle against Covid-19. However, sources said, India has chosen not to respond to the offer.

The sources also weighed in on the issue of China holding Covid-related meetings with some of India’s neighbours, saying Delhi has “neither participated” in, nor recognises such discussions. 

Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong tweeted Wednesday that the country’s “medical suppliers are working overtime on orders from India”. 

First shipment from US to arrive this week 

The US has come out with a huge Covid assistance package for India. Sources said the first shipment of critical items from the package, especially medicines, will arrive Thursday or Friday.

The second consignment is also expected to be shipped later this week, the sources added. 

Sources said India has mainly asked the US for medicines such as remdesivir and tocilizumab, which are being used for Covid treatment and are currently in high demand. 

India, the sources added, is facing “certain issues” with Gilead Sciences, the maker of remdesivir, over patents and has thus asked the US pharma major to “donate” some vials.

Gilead, the MEA said Wednesday, has offered 100,000 vials of remdesivir, free of cost, to Indian healthcare company HLL. They can supply an additional 200,000 vials by 31 May, the MEA added. 

Some institutions in India will be provided raw material by Gilead for local production, the MEA said.

According to sources, the US will also be sending some items, sourced from their overseas bases, by military aircraft.

Asked about the possibility of the US supplying AstraZeneca Covid vaccines to India, sources said Washington has a stock of “about 10 million at present and they will send some of it to India”, as and when they are approved by the US drug regulator FDA.

India, sources added, is also looking to import oxygen cylinders and concentrators, including from the US.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced Wednesday that 600 oxygen concentrators are being airlifted from the US. 

Apart from this, India is procuring liquid oxygen, which cannot be airlifted but can only be dispatched via ships, from Saudi Arabia.

(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)


Also Read: Happy hypoxia, diarrhoea, severe infection: How 2nd Covid wave is affecting young patients


 

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Hari Sud,

    In the first place, India need not get anything from China, why the need to tell them to get lost ?

  2. Chinese have not much to offer. Their vaccine has 50% efficacy rate, which is far below, rather at the bottom. Oxygen required has already arrived in quantities. All oxygen regulators etc of second class quality have already been purchased by India from them. India dies not need anything else from the Chinese. We should say thank you to them and tell them to get lost.

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