After Trump, Brazil's Bolsonaro thanks PM Modi for supplying hydroxychroloquine raw materials

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing the export of raw materials to his country to produce hydroxychroloquine - an anti-malaria drug - seen as useful in the treatment of COVID-19.

"As an outcome of my direct conversation with Indian Prime Minister, we'll receive, raw materials to continue our production of Hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of India for such timely help to the people of Brazil," Bolsonaro said in an address to his nation on Wednesday.

Brazil has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in South America with more than 14,000 infections and almost 700 deaths.

Bolsonaro was one of the leaders Prime Minister Modi spoke to over the weekend in his continuing interaction with world leaders since the outbreak of the pandemic. During his conversation, the Brazilian president had put forth his request to Modi to release the ingredients for HCQ that India had placed a ban on.

During the phone call, the two leaders had also stressed the significance of close cooperation between India and Brazil, bilaterally as well as in the multilateral institutional framework, to mitigate the grave crises caused by COVID-19. They agreed on the need to forge a new human-centric concept of globalisation for the post-COVID world.

India is the largest manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine in the world. But the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had banned exports of the drug and its ingredients in view of the rapid rise in the infection-related cases in the country.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump thanked PM Modi and the people of India for lifting curbs on the export of hydroxychloroquine.

"Extraordinary times require even closer cooperation between friends. Thank you, India and the Indian people for the decision on HCQ. Will not be forgotten! Thank you Prime Minister @NarendraModi for your strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity, in this fight!" Trump had said in a post on Twitter on Wednesday.