India calls for protecting interests of foreign students in wake of COVID19

In an ''extraordinary meeting'' of G20 foreign ministers, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar proposed developing protocols for the movement of people and quarantine procedures by the grouping and foreign students, stranded seafarers back to their home countries.

New Delhi: India on Thursday called upon governments around the world to ensure that interests of foreign students are protected and movement of stranded seafarers back to their home countries is facilitated in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

In an address at an ''extraordinary meeting'' of G20 foreign ministers, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also proposed developing protocols for the movement of people and quarantine procedures by the grouping.

The meeting was convened by Saudi Arabia, the current G20 chair.

"The discussions centred on strengthening international cooperation across borders in the wake of COVID-19 crisis. The ministers also exchanged national experiences and lessons learned from the cross-border management measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

In his address, Jaishankar stressed on the need to facilitate more cross-border movement of people.

"The external affairs minister called on governments around the world to ensure that interests of foreign students are protected and movement of stranded seafarers back to their home country is facilitated," the MEA said.

It said he also proposed the development of voluntary ‘G20 Principles on Coordinated Cross-Border Movement of People’ with three elements.

The elements suggested by Jaishankar are standardisation of testing procedures and universal acceptability of test results, standardisation of quarantine procedures and standardisation of movement and transit protocols.

In his remarks, the external affairs minister commended Saudi Arabia for its proactive approach in bringing G20 countries together for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The external affairs minister highlighted the steps taken by India in the wake of the pandemic," said the MEA.

He also apprised the G20 foreign ministers about the steps taken by India including the ''Vande Bharat Mission'' and creation of ‘travel bubbles’ for the welfare and protection of foreign citizens stranded in India as well as its own citizens abroad.

(PTI)