Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that India had in its own humble way tried to walk the talk during the deadly pandemic by providing vaccines and medicines to other countries despite the constraints it faces due to the surging number of cases.
“During this pandemic, in our own humble way, within our own limited resources, we in India have tried to walk the talk. We have tried to protect our own 1.3 billion citizens from the pandemic. At the same time, we have also tried to support the pandemic response efforts of others,” the Prime Minister said at the inauguration of the virtual ‘Raisina Dialogue’ international conference.
The Covid-19 pandemic has presented us an opportunity to reshape the world order, to reorient our thinking. We must create systems that address the problems of today and challenges of tomorrow, the PM said.
He emphasised the need for countries to think of the welfare of entire humanity. India has shared medicines and protective equipment with over 150 countries and “we understand fully, that mankind will not defeat the pandemic unless all of us, everywhere, regardless of the colour of our passports, come out of it,” the PM remarked.
“That is why, this year despite many constraints, we have supplied vaccine to over 80 countries. We know that the supplies have been modest. We know that the demands are huge. We know that it will be a long time before the entire humanity can be vaccinated. At the same time, we also know that hope matters, PM Modi said.
“It matters as much to the citizens of the richest countries as it does to the less fortunate. And so we will continue to share our experiences, our expertise and also our resources with the entire humanity in the fight against the pandemic,” he added.
PM Modi called for the need to adopt a strong human-centric approach. “Elsewhere while we may be used to having Plan A and plan B, there is no Planet B, only planet Earth. And so we must remember that we hold this planet merely as trustees for our future generations,” he observed.
Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen and President of Rwanda Paul Kagame participated in the inaugural session as chief guests at the virtual event. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and European Council President Charles Michel will be a part of the subsequent sessions of the dialogue.
Foreign ministers of Singapore, Japan, Portugal and 14 other countries are also taking part in the event.
A total of 50 sessions will be held and 150 speakers from 50 countries and multilateral organisations will attend the event virtually, according to a statement of the Ministry of External Affairs. Over 2,000 participants from more than 80 countries have registered for the conference.
The theme for the 2021 conference is “#ViralWorld: Outbreaks, Outliers and Out of Control”.
