Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and Indian Ambassador to the Philippines Shambhu S. Kumaran discussed ways to ramp up vaccine cooperation between the Philippines and India amid the growing threat of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
During their meeting Friday, March 19, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Locsin reiterated the Philippines' interest to secure more supplies of COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturing companies in India.
In June 2020, President Duterte had a phone conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that heavily focused on the coronavirus pandemic.
During their 25-minute conversation, Modi had assured Duterte that the Philippines can count on India for a supply of affordable medicines and pharmaceutical products for the COVID-19 crisis.
This week, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the Philippines has signed a supply agreement with the Serum Institute of India for the acquisition of 30 million doses of Novavax vaccines that are expected to be delivered to the country by the third and fourth quarters of the year.
In January this year, Locsin said the Philippines was looking to India on how it was implementing its vaccination program that sought to inoculate 300 million people against COVID-19 by August.
A Reuters report said India's massive vaccination drive, which relies on the digital platform CoWIN, would be able to handle up to 10 million shots daily to reach its target of covering 300 million by August.
More areas of cooperation
Meanwhile, aside from vaccine cooperation, Locsin and Kumaran discussed the dynamic state of Philippines-India cooperation in the areas of maritime security, counter-terrorism, cyber-security, space, energy, and information and communications technology.
According to the DFA, Locsin welcomed the burgeoning ties between the Philippines and India and highlighted the recent steps forward in the areas of defense, health and pharmaceutical cooperation, and disaster preparedness.
Kumaran, for his part, underscored the strong complementarities between Prime Minister Modi’s Act East Policy and President Duterte’s independent foreign policy and the need for security and stability in the Indo-Pacific and Southeast Asian regions.