As a consignment of Indian-made vaccines arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the country will always stand with its friends.
Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar said: “Made in India vaccines reach Afghanistan. Stand with our friends, always.”
As part of its humanitarian gesture, India on Sunday sent 5,00,000 doses of made-in-India COVID-19 vaccines to Afghanistan by a Mumbai-Delhi-Kabul Air India flight.
The Indian mission in a statement said, “India is the first responder to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to Afghanistan”.
In 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak, India had sent 75000 MT of wheat to Afghanistan as humanitarian aid via Chabahar port to prevent any shortage of food amid the pandemic.
Till now, India has supplied Indian-made COVID-19 vaccines to 17 countries including Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, the UAE, Brazil, Morocco, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, South Africa.
In the coming weeks, the Indian vaccines are scheduled to reach CARICOM countries (the Caribbean), Pacific Island States, Nicaragua, Mongolia, etc.
