After shipping 9 million Covid 19 vaccine doses to Bangladesh, India has given another 1.2 million free doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus jabs to Dhaka on Saturday.

“Bangladesh has requested a regular supply of the remaining vaccines purchased from the Serum Institute,” Bangladesh’s foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen said. According to a Reuters report, Bangladesh, which is home to 160 million people, has already vaccinated over 5.2 million people. The south Asian country’s vaccination programme started in late January after Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the exercise on January 28.

The Reuters report said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the offering at the end of a two-day tour of Bangladesh to celebrate its 50th independence anniversary. Importantly, this was Modi’s first foreign visit in the post Covid era. In December, Modi and Hasina also held a bilateral summit. 

"Relationship going from strength to strength! Prime Minister @narendramodi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina discussed the progress achieved in areas of health, trade, connectivity, energy, developmental cooperation and many more," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi wrote on Twitter.

India and Bangladesh share around 4,100 Km long international border. While about 1,880 Kilometre is along the north-eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram, the rest is with West Bengal.

Bangladesh was one of the first countries to receive the Made-in-India jabs.

With Modi’s visit to Dhaka, relations between the two neighbour have taken a new turn. Observers said that the two leaders—Modi and Hasina – have taken bilateral relations to an all time high.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has urged India to “maintain a regular supply of shots to battle the pandemic,” the Reuters report noted.