India delivering COVID-19 vaccines to Oman reflects friendship spanning millennia: Jaishankar

Muscat [Oman]: A consignment of India-made vaccines arrived in Muscat on Saturday, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar adding that India providing vaccines to Oman is a friendship "spanning millennia."

"Made in India vaccines arrive in Muscat. Reflects a deep friendship, spanning millennia," the External Affairs Minister wrote on Twitter.

"Vaccines made in India arrive in Muscat. It reflects a deep friendship spanning thousands of years," the Indian Embassy in Muscat also wrote from its official Twitter Handle retweeting Jaishankar's tweet.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Thursday said India plans to gift vaccine doses to Oman, CARICOM countries, Nicaragua, Pacific Island states.

Srivastava said New Delhi plans to supply 1 crore or 10 million vaccine doses to Africa and 10 lakh to United Nations health workers under GAVI's (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) COVAX facility.

"From 20th January 2021 onward, we have gifted over 55 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines to our neighbouring countries and in the extended neighbourhood--1.5 lakh to Bhutan, 1 lakh to Maldives, Mauritius and Bahrain, 10 lakhs to Nepal, 20 lakhs to Bangladesh, 15 lakhs to Myanmar, 50,000 to Seychelles, 5 lakh to Sri Lanka. In the coming days, We plan to gift further quantity to Oman that is of 1 lakh doses, 5 lakh doses to CARICOM countries. 2 lakh to Nicaragua, 2 lakh doses to the Pacific island state," Srivastava added.

These supplies are based on the request of these countries, he said.

India, Srivastava said, plans to commercially export coronavirus vaccine to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Canada, Mongolia and other countries.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the capacity to produce vaccines of India is one of the 'best assets that the world has today'. To which, Jaishankar replied that the global community can count on the 'Pharmacy of the World'.

"You can count on the Pharmacy of the World to help overcome the COVID-19 challenge," he wrote in a tweet dated Friday.