India has received the first consignment of Russia-made Sputnik V Covid 19 vaccine, adding a new medical dimension to Indo-Russian special ties, which have so far focused on military hardware and energy.
The Russians sent 1,50,000 doses of the vaccine, while another 3 million doses of the jabs are in the pipeline, to be delivered later this month. The Russian supplies will help alleviate the acute shortage of doses, as India gears up to vaccinate all adults from Saturday.
By ferreting the vaccines when India needed them most, the Russians have added another dimension to the New Delhi-Moscow strategic partnership. Russia wants India to become a global manufacturing hub for Sputnik V vaccines, in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat doctrine.
Shedding a zero-sum approach and focusing on “strategic autonomy”, India is bonding with the United States, Japan and Australia in the Indo-Pacific region, while Russia has emerged as New Delhi’s key partner in Eurasia. The two countries are founding partners with Iran, of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which connects India to Russia via Iran.
Last month External Affairs Minister, S.Jaishankar had proposed the merger of the Chabahar route—linking Mumbai with Afghanistan and Central Asia via the Iranian port of Chabahar—and the INSTC. The giant corridor, which excludes China, is the gateway to India’s trade and cultural outreach to Eurasia.
The vaccines that reached Hyderabad have been sent to Dr Reddy’s, Sputnik V’s partner in India.
Happy to share that the first batch of the #SputnikV vaccine delivered in Hyderabad! As #RussiaIndia continue dedicated joint efforts to combat the #COVID19, this move is especially important to support the Indian Government’s endeavors to mitigate deadly 2nd wave & save lives. pic.twitter.com/0zY0bTTOKl
— Nikolay Kudashev 🇷🇺 (@NKudashev) May 1, 2021
“Happy to share that the first batch of #SputnikV vaccine delivered in Hyderabad! As #RussiaIndia continue dedicated joint efforts to combat the #COVID 19, this move is especially important to support the Indian Government’s endeavours to mitigate deadly 2nd wave and save lives,” Nikolay Kudashev, Russian Ambassador to India tweeted.
Kudashev also said that “this is the only way we can defeat #COVID 19—by outlining uniting our endeavours and supporting each other in difficult times. Collective efforts and mutual respect should be the most important recipe to respond to any challenge.”
The ambassador added that this vaccine will be effective against new strains of Covid-19.
Local production of the jabs is also expected to start soon.
The despatch of the first batch of the Sputnik V vaccines follow a conversation earlier this week between Prime Minister Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Following the parleys, PM Modi in a tweet said: “Had an excellent conversation with my friend President Putin today. We discussed the evolving Covid 19 situation, and I thanked President Putin for Russia’s help and support in India’s fight against the pandemic.”
On his part the Russian President said that Moscow was rushing emergency humanitarian aid to India. In particular, he informed PM Modi that two flights of the Russian Emergencies Ministry would be airborne to deliver 22 tonnes of necessary equipment. These included 20 oxygen production units, 75 lung ventilators, 150 medical monitors and 200,000 packs of medicine. Both the relief planes landed in New Delhi on Thursday morning, within hours of the conversation.
Apart from the consignment, the two leaders agreed to impart greater strategic bandwidth to ties by starting a joint 2+2 dialogue involving their defence and foreign ministers, apart from stepping up collaborations in outer space and renewable energy. “We also reviewed our diverse bilateral cooperation, especially in the area of space exploration and renewable energy sector, including in hydrogen economy. Our cooperation on Sputnik-V vaccine will assist humanity in battling the pandemic,” Modi had tweeted.
