Bangladesh organises vaccination drive for diplomats under ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative

The vaccines were provided to Bangladesh at a very crucial time when the number of coronavirus cases was rising. High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami took to Twitter to thank the Indian government for its Made in India vaccine and asserted on the long-lasting friendship between India and Bangladesh, reports senior correspondent Chandrakala Choudhury.

New Delhi:India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative to gift COVID-19 vaccines to neighbouring countries has received immense praises and applauds from all across the world.

However, in line with that, Bangladesh under the banner of ‘Vaccine Maitri’ on Wednesday organised a vaccination program for foreign diplomats and spouses in Dhaka.

High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami took to Twitter to thank the Indian government for its Made in India vaccine and asserted on the long-lasting friendship between India and Bangladesh.

“Vaccine Maitri in Bangladesh: today @MoFA_Bangladesh organized COVID-19 jabs from @serumInstIndia for diplomat volunteers. Proud to take #MadeinInia vaccine, in #sonarbangla. Thank you YE MoS @MdShahriarAlam for your warm words on India vaccine”, Doraiswamy said in a tweet.

India has so far officially handed over 20 lakh doses of Covid 19 vaccine as a gift to Bangladesh. The vaccines were provided to Bangladesh at a very crucial time when the number of coronavirus cases was rising.

Doraiswamy had earlier said that as part of India’s neighbourhood first policy, Bangladesh accorded high priority to India-Bangladesh relationship and gifting of 20 lakh doses of covishield vaccine was the biggest such dispatch by India to any of the neighbouring countries.

Earlier today, Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit showered words of praises for India, as the Caribbean country received 70k doses of vaccine.

The Dominican Prime Minister said that he did not imagine that the prayers of his country would be answered so swiftly.

Sharing a picture of a consignment reaching Dominica, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar described it “as a gesture of goodwill, an example of support”.

Later, Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit expressed heartfelt thanks to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, for considering his request on merit and recognising the equality of its people.

“I must confess that I didn’t imagine that the prayers of my country would have been answered so swiftly. Be the leader of a small Caribbean Island with a population of 72,000 people, I didn’t fancy my chances of getting such a swift and positive response to my request of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said in a video message.

India also delivered a consignment of Covishield vaccines to another Caribbean country of Barbados.

As a service to humanity, India has so far supplied vaccines to Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, the UAE, Brazil, Morocco, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Algeria, Kuwait and South Africa.