India's vaccine production capacity to help humanity in fighting Covid: MEA

India's vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and it will also help countries in enhancing their cold chain and storage capacities, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that as part of such efforts, India organised two training modules for its neighbouring countries in which about 90 health experts and scientists participated.

"We propose to expand these programmes to include other interested countries," he said at an online media briefing.

"As announced by Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) in his speech to the UN General Assembly last month, India's vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic," Srivastava said.

India will also help all countries in enhancing their cold chain and storage capacities for the delivery of vaccines, he said.

From October 17, a delegation of the concerned departments visited Bangladesh and had fruitful discussions with their Bangladeshi counterparts on the current stage of vaccine development in India and modalities of clinical trials in Bangladesh, Srivastava pointed out.

The concerned officials of the two sides have had a virtual interaction on Myanmar's interest in cooperation on COVID19 vaccines, he said.

"As the situation with respect to vaccine development evolves, the sides will discuss and decide on modalities of cooperation," he said.

"In due course, depending on the trials in India, we propose to expand our cooperation with other countries also in clinical trials and capacity building for vaccine development, production and delivery," he said.