PM Modi's govt set 'brilliant example' by providing vaccines to neighbours: Bangladeshi minister

Countries in South Asia need to collaborate regionally and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has set a "brilliant example" by providing vaccines to India's neighbours, a Bangladeshi minister said on Thursday.

Speaking at a webinar, Bangladesh's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Shahriar Alam said South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was "failing to live up to expectations" and expressed optimism over Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Ecomic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) initiative.

minister asserted that Bangladesh and India are witnessing "golden chapter" of ir bilateral ties. "We must work toger to resolve pending issues, including sharing of waters of common rivers, resolution of sharing of continental shelf issue in Bay of Bengal and bringing border incidents to zero," Alam said via video conference from Bangladesh.

"COVID-19 has t only demonstrated our links and interdependence, but also our fragility. Unity and solidarity must be our living principles in se challenging times. It demands decisive, concerted and invative actions by all," he said while speaking at webinar organised by Vivekananda's International Foundation.

"This is how we in Bangladesh feel that countries in South Asia need to collaborate regionally and this is a brilliant example that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is t only providing vaccines to Bangladesh, but to all South Asian neighbours eventually," Alam said.

Bangladesh appreciates cooperation extended by government of India for providing vaccines, medicines and protective equipment to contain COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Alam said Bangladesh is grateful to Prime Minister Modi's government for assistance during pandemic and ted that earlier on Thursday, he along with Bangladeshi foreign and health ministers, formally received vaccines provided by India under grant assistance.

India has handed over 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh under grant assistance. Alam ted that Bangladeshi firms have also signed agreements with Serum Institute of India for vaccines.

"On our part, we facilitated urgent evacuation of Indian nationals working and studying in Bangladesh back to India during COVID. We received similar cooperation from India where Bangladeshis were stuck in different locations in those difficult weeks of April and May last year," he said.

Bangladesh and Nepal on Thursday received COVID-19 vaccines from India under grant assistance. On Wednesday, India sent 1,50,000 doses of Covisheild vaccines to Bhutan and 1,00,000 doses to Maldives.

India has already rolled out a massive coronavirus vaccination drive under which two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, are being administered to frontline health workers across country.

While Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield is being manufactured by Serum Institute, Covaxin is being produced by Bharat Biotech.

Asked about regional cooperation in forums such as SAARC and BIMSTEC, Alam ted physical effort made by Prime Minister Modi in past to give some impetus to SAARC to operate.

"But unfortunately SAARC is failing to live up to expectations. Even during last summit in Nepal when leaders, whatever achievements y made after rigorous negotiations, when it came to signing a key instrument, SAARC failed to deliver," he said.

Alam said BIMSTEC connects region with ASEAN countries and "we are heavily banking on it". He said that more could be done under SAARC especially how regional trade blocs were emerging in or parts of world.

"We initiated South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) three decades ago but we never delivered," he said. Under BIMSTEC platform, FTA was proposed and some countries are yet to come up with tariff policies, Alam said. He said even if BIMSTEC FTA may t be possible immediately, re should be easing of trade between regional countries.

minister also said that Bangladesh is looking forward to welcoming Prime Minister Modi to Dhaka in March this year to "grace programme marking birth centenary of our far of nation (Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) and commencement of golden jubilee celebrations of Bangladesh's independence and establishment of our diplomatic relations with India". He said a number of programmes were being planned to mark se important occasions.