"We are facing a situation that perhaps we have not seen before and may not see in the future. This is an unprecedented situation," - thus stated Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla.
"We have given assistance; we are getting assistance. It shows an interdependent world. It shows a world that is working with each other," Shringla said.
At a media briefing here on Thursday, the Foreign Secretary maintained the global assistance has been pouring in and so far 40 countries has extended help.
"It is an interdependent world where we have given and we are taking also. Vaccine has to be seen in the context of international cooperation," he said.
Earlier India was in a position to supply vaccines and today its needs are far greater. "All our partners understand that," he said.
Notably, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar also had maintained that the Vaccine Maitri has certainly "strengthened global solidarity with India".
He was asked on whether there was a change in India's policy of not accepting foreign aid that was enforced after the 2004 tsunami by the Manmohan Singh government. Post Tsunami, New Delhi'sstance was it did not want to be seen as someone carrying beggar bowl. In fact, during the Vajpayee regime, the then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh had in 2003 created a new doctrine of foreign aid.
There was some irritation in the foreign policy engine room around that time on certain preconditions imposed by tiny countries (Denmark was one such) that had cancelled its paltry $28 million commitment when India conducted multiple nuclear tests in May 1998.
Jaswant Singh's mechanism highlighted that all those countries giving aid assistance below $25 million, could donate it to NGOs. The NDA government had driven away quite a few bilateral donors and a minimum limit of $25 million was fixed for the government to accept any bilateral assistance.
On Thursday media briefing, Foreign Secretary Shringla said since the outbreak of Covid in 2020, India had supplied essential pharmaceutical products including hydroxychloroquine, paracetamol and even Remdesivir to countries across the globe; and many countries have now come forward to help India.
"We have given assistance; we are getting assistance. It shows an interdependent world. It shows a world that is working with each other," Shringla emphasised adding, "We are dealing with the situation which is quite exceptional".
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"They are extending support as they feel that this is the time we must help India. 'India has helped us and we must help India'. So I do not think we are looking at it in policy terms," the foreign secretary said.
"We are looking at it in terms of a situation that is very very unusual, that is very unprecedented, that is very exceptional".
The foreign secretary also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's regional and global outreach in confronting the challenges arising out of the pandemic under a collective approach.
"The prime minister talked about the fact that countries need to come together to cooperate. That is why we initiated the SAARC conference on COVID-19 in March last year when it was a very new concept. We then initiated a call for a G-20 summit," he said.
"We have extensively gone forward to assist countries which are very far and away," he added.
The foreign secretary also said that India was looking at procuring ready-to-use coronavirus vaccines considering the huge domestic requirement.
In fact, in his address to the NAM Summit (through video conference) on May 4, 2020; Prime Minister had said, "Even as the world fights COVID-19, some people are busy spreading other deadly viruses, such as terrorism. Such as fake news, and doctored videos to divide communities and countries".
Though no country was named, it was clear that Modi was directing his ire against Pakistan.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had earlier given the SAARC virtual meet on Covid-19 a slip and had instead nominated his Health Minister to speak and who had raked up Kashmir issue.
ends
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