India will do everything possible to facilitate the Covid vaccines sought by Canada: Prime Minister assures Trudeau | India News

NEW DELHI: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has criticized the Indian government for protests by farmers, called on Prime Minister Modi to request Covid vaccines.
In a tweet late at night, Modi said: “I was happy to get a call from my friend @JustinTrudeau. He assured him that India would do everything possible to facilitate the supply of the Covid vaccines that Canada seeks. We also agreed to continue collaborating on other important issues such as climate change and global economic recovery ”.

Canada has requested 1 million doses of Covid vaccines from the Serum Institute. While this would be a commercial purchase, the government would have to grant export authorization, which India has said it would do with domestic considerations in mind.
Trudeau has been in the news in India recently after he supported farmers’ protests in December, sparking a strong response from the Indian government. Foreign Minister Jaishankar grimly warned that bilateral relations will suffer. The Trudeau government has also refused to comply with requests from India to act against Khalistani elements present in that country.
But right now Trudeau is facing so much internal pressure from a slow launch of Covid vaccines in Canada. Canada also faces serious criticism for being the only G-7 country to receive vaccines from the COVAX group, which is primarily for low- and middle-income countries.
By the end of 2020, Canada had obtained enough vaccines to give each of its citizens more than four doses each. However, the slow launch of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines has adversely affected vaccination programs in Canada. Pfizer has difficulties supplying both in the EU countries and in North America. Consequently, Canada now has one of the lowest vaccination rates, at 2.38%. Canada is scheduled to source 26 million doses from Moderna and Pfizer between April and May. But Trudeau now wants to get the Astra Zeneca from India. Canada does not have a national vaccine production capacity.
An official press release read: “Expressing his appreciation, Prime Minister Trudeau said that if the world succeeded in conquering Covid-19, it would be significant due to India’s tremendous pharmaceutical capacity and Prime Minister Modi’s leadership in sharing this capacity with the world. The Prime Minister thanked Prime Minister Trudeau for his sentiments. ”