At UN, India’s PM Narendra Modi pledges coronavirus vaccine to help ‘all humanity’
- In UN speech, Modi said India’s vaccine production capacity would be made available globally to fight Covid-19
- Modi made no direct mention of India’s border tussle with China following a clash in June when 20 Indian troops died
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to help the world produce and deliver potential coronavirus vaccines while making no mention Saturday of the heavy toll the pandemic has taken on his own country, where the enormous population has suffered among the highest numbers of cases and deaths in the world.
Modi’s remarks to the UN General Assembly – pre-recorded because the gathering is virtual this year – also said nothing about growing tensions with neighbouring Pakistan, whose prime minister, Imran Khan, devoted much of his speech Friday to assailing India, leading to a sharp exchange between the two countries’ diplomats in the Assembly hall. Nor did Modi discuss India’s dispute with China over the border region of Ladakh, where a months-long stand-off has seen the deadliest violence between the two sides in decades.
Instead, Modi cast India as a country that treats “the whole world as one family”, emphasised the country’s push for a bigger role at the UN, and touted domestic initiatives in areas from technology to sewage sanitation. And he promised that the country’s robust pharmaceutical industry would be an international asset in the pandemic.
“India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis,” Modi said, adding that his country would also help others boost their capacity to provide cold storage for the potential inoculations.
India, the world’s second-most populous country, has reported over 93,000 deaths from Covid-19, fewer only than the US and Brazil, according to figures collected by Johns Hopkins University. India also is behind only the US in number of cases, with 5.9 million reported so far. However, India’s daily number of new cases has been declining, with recoveries exceeding reported new cases in the past week.
Modi said the UN hadn’t done enough in the virus fight – “where is its effective response?” Saying the world body has fallen short on other issues over its 75 years, he used the anniversary to press for change.