India giving pharma assistance to 85 nations to support COVID fight: Jaishankar to BRICS

At the video conference of the Foreign Ministers of BRICS, a bloc of five leading nations, on Tuesday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted the pharma assistance being provided by India to nearly 85 countries on a grant basis to support their response against the Coronavirus pandemic.

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Ministers of Foreign Affairs video conference was convened by the current BRICS chair, Russia to discuss COVID-19 crisis, its impact and BRICS response. The BRICS Foreign Ministers also discussed the activities to be undertaken under Russian BRICS Chairmanship in 2020.

'India instituted measures to check Coronavirus'

"EAM highlighted the initiatives and various decisive steps taken early by India in the wake of the pandemic including through Aarogya Setu Citizen App and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package. He highlighted that much before the outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern by WHO, India instituted measures to check Corona Virus," Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

"He apprised the BRICS Foreign Ministers about the initiative to coordinate efforts to contain COVID-19 in South Asia, and creation of COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund by the SAARC countries. India is providing pharma assistance to nearly 85 nations, including many countries in Africa, on a grant basis, to support their response to the pandemic. This has been widely welcomed," it added.

'Need to support businesses' 

S Jaishankar emphasised that the pandemic is not only posing a great risk to the health and well-being of humanity but is also severely impacting the global economy and output by disruption of global trade and supply chains. "Economic activity across sectors has been negatively impacted leading to loss of jobs and livelihoods. He emphasised that we need to provide support to businesses, especially MSMEs, to tide over the crisis and ensure livelihoods are not lost," the MEA said in a release.

The New Development Bank of the BRICS grouping will set aside USD 15 billion to help its members tide over the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced after a meeting of the five-nation bloc.

"We decided to allocate up to USD 15 billion...We believe that it should become a very good reinforcement for our countries'' economies when they're coming out of the crisis and resume economic operations," Sergey Lavrov said after the meeting.

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The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) represents over 3.6 billion people, or half of the world population and has a combined GDP of USD 16.6 trillion. A virtual meeting of BRICS Health Officials is envisaged on COVID-19 pandemic on May, 7 to take the discussion forward in a focussed and purposeful manner.

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(With agency inputs)