Bangladesh will be accorded high priority in all efforts related to the development, trial, distribution and production of the Covid-19 vaccine in India.
Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar assured his Bangladesh counterpart Dr AK Abdul Momen on the Covid-19 vaccine issue at the sixth meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) on Tuesday.
“Going forward, (the) collaboration to produce Covid-19 vaccines will be highly important. We look forward to cooperating with Bangladesh in vaccine development and trials as well as distribution and production as and when vaccines are ready for use,” Dr Jaishankar read out a written statement to Dr Momen during the virtual meeting. “Bangladesh will be accorded high priority in all these efforts.”
Jaishankar said India was ready to start the Phase III trial of the Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh soon after the launch of the trials in India.
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“Common trials would help strengthen cooperation among our regulators and simplify the processes for future distribution and joint production of vaccines,” he added.
Sources at the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh said the Indian external affairs minister had held out the assurance that Bangladesh would be the first country to get the Indian Covid-19 vaccine once it was ready.
The Indian minister also said India had offered 10 online courses on Covid-19 management and an exclusive online course in Bangla for Bangladesh’s health professionals.
He mentioned that India would unveil a commemorative stamp marking the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on December 16.
The two sides also discussed the biopic of Bangabandhu, which will be a joint production of Bangladesh and India, to be directed by a Bangladeshi.
Sources said a home secretary-level meeting between the two countries was due very soon and was likely to be held in November in Dhaka.