Jalina Porter, US State Department spokesperson on Friday amid a press briefing gave the reaffirmation that US will be involved very closely with India for facilitating movement of essential supplies amid the spike in the Covid-19 cases.
While revealing an update over India’s request regarding US position on the embargo over lifting of raw materials for the vaccine, she said, “We have continued to work closely with India to facilitate the movement of essential supplies and also address the bottlenecks of their supply chains. But we’ll also continue to collaborate with our partners in India to battle this at the highest level.”
Porter further added, “We don’t have any specific update to raw materials, but we’ll just reiterate that we understand the COVID situation in India remains a global concern.”
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken addressed the issue of the second wave of Covid-19 in India with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Porter said, “We know Secretary Blinken spoke to his counterpart on Tuesday, and we remain deeply engaged with India at all levels as we work to combat this crisis of the pandemic together.”
India and South Africa had earlier requested the World Trade Organization (WTO) over temporarily taking away specific intellectual property barriers and permit the countries for local manufacture of Covid-19 diagnostics along with the vaccines.
The Agreement on Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver presented by India and South Africa in October 2020 would temporarily lift several intellectual property barriers and permit the countries for local manufacturing of Covid-19 diagnostics, treatment and vaccines.
(With agency inputs)
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