India has gained reputation of first, reliable responder: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Wednesday said in the last few years, India had developed a reputation of being the first and reliable responder in the region, stating that the country had provided “Made in India” vaccines for COVID-19 to 72 countries. Medicines have been supplied to 150 nations, 82 of them as grants.

In a statement to the Parliament on the Vaccine Maitri initiative, Mr. Jaishankar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision had provided an overarching framework to make the country’s goodwill meaningful in terms of practical initiatives and activities. “We already saw that in our humanitarian assistance and disaster responses, whether in Yemen and Nepal or Mozambique and Fiji. As a result, in the last few years, India has developed a reputation of being the first and reliable responder in the region. We saw that too in critical negotiations of global importance like the Paris Agreement, where we had a key bridging role,” he said.