'Thank you to Indian govt': Canada MP who pushed Trudeau & co to call PM Modi for vaccines

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday assured his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau that India would do its best to facilitate supplies of COVID vaccines sought by Canada. This happened days after a video of a Canadian Opposition lawmaker quizzing sitting Procurement Minister Anita Anand over contacting India to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the country went viral on social media.

'Thank you to the Indian govt for taking the call!'

Michelle Rempel Garner, a Conservative MP and Shadow Minister for Health, in a meeting of the standing committee on health, asked if the Trudeau government had reached out to Prime Minister Modi for vaccines. At that time, Anita Anand could not respond to the question. Garner on Friday quoted her own tweet where she quizzed the minister and wrote, "Update: after this exchange, Trudeau called Narendra Modi. Thank you to the Indian government for taking the call! Opposition political pressure works."

'Happy to receive a call from my friend Justin Trudeau': PM Modi

Trudeau, who made a telephone call to PM Modi, said that if the world managed to conquer COVID-19, it would be significantly because of India's tremendous pharmaceutical capacity and Modi's leadership in sharing this capacity with the world, according to a Prime Minister's Office (PMO) statement. During the call, Prime Minister Trudeau informed Modi about Canada's requirements of COVID-19 vaccines from India. Prime Minister Modi assured his Canadian counterpart that India would do its best to support Canada's vaccination efforts, just as it had done for many other countries already.  

India is one of the world's biggest drugmakers, and an increasing number of countries have already approached it for procuring Coronavirus vaccines. Last week, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India had sent 56 lakh doses of Coronavirus vaccines under grants assistance to a number of countries while 100 lakh doses were sent under commercial supplies.

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It is said that Trudeau's delay in dialling PM Modi could also be because of his meddling in India's internal affairs over the farmer protests. Trudeau had said that Canada will always be there to defend the rights of peaceful protests, and expressed concern over the situation. The matter was taken up with the Canadian authorities both in Ottawa and New Delhi and India conveyed that such comments pertaining to the "internal affairs of India are unwarranted, unacceptable and would damage India-Canada bilateral relations."

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