PM Modi assures Canada's Trudeau of COVID vaccine supplies

Prime Ministers of India and Canada on Wednesday spoke to each other during which, Indian PM Narendra Modi assured Canadian PM Justin Trudeau on COVID vaccine supplies. While India has sent 'India made vaccines' to around 20 countries, it has got a lot of requests from developed as well as developing countries.

A readout from Indian PM's office said, during the talks Prime Minister Trudeau informed his counterpart PM Narendra Modi about 'Canada's requirements of COVID-19 vaccines from India', to which the latter "assured that India would do its best to support Canada's vaccination efforts, just as it had done for many other countries already."

The readout said Canadian leader lauded New Delhi saying, "If the world managed to conquer COVID-19, it would be significantly because of India's tremendous pharmaceutical capacity" and "Prime Minister Modi's leadership in sharing this capacity with the world."

The vaccines will be supplied commercially from India to Canada. India has already supplied vaccines on a commercial basis to countries like Brazil, Morrocco, South Africa. During the talks, both sides discussed issues such as the economic impact of the pandemic, climate change.

The talks assume significance since ties were impacted in December after Canadian PM has commented on the farmers' protests in India. An angry New Delhi back then had summoned the Canadian envoy to Delhi Nadir Patel and handed over a strong demarche. In fact, the matter was taken up with Canadian authorities both in Ottawa and New Delhi and conveyed that such comments pertaining to the internal affairs of India are "unwarranted and unacceptable"