On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau that India would do its best to promote stocks of COVID vaccines asked by Canada. This occurred days after a video of a Canadian Opposition lawmaker examining sitting Procurement Minister Anita Anand over reaching India to get COVID-19 vaccines for the nation went viral on social media.
Michelle Rempel Garner, a Conservative MP and Shadow Minister for Health, in a conference of the standing committee on wellness, asked if the Trudeau government had stretched out to Prime Minister Modi for vaccines. At that time, Anita Anand could not reply to the question. Garner on Friday shared her tweet where she quizzed the minister and wrote, “Update: after this exchange, Trudeau called Narendra Modi. Thank you to the Indian government for taking the call! Opposition political pressure works.”
Trudeau, who reached to PM Modi through a phone call, said that if the world endured overcoming COVID-19, it would be important because of India’s great pharmaceutical potential and Modi’s leadership in bestowing this ability with the world, according to a Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) statement. During the call, Prime Minister Trudeau told Modi about Canada’s calls for COVID-19 vaccines from India. Prime Minister Modi promised his Canadian counterpart that India would do its best to support Canada’s vaccination trials, just as it had taken for many other countries already.
India is one of the world’s largest drugmakers, and an increasing number of countries have already requested it for obtaining Coronavirus vaccines. Last week, External Affairs Ministry representative Anurag Srivastava said India had given 56 lakh doses of Coronavirus vaccines under grant support to many countries while 100 lakh doses were given under business supplies. It is said that Trudeau’s delay in reaching PM Modi could also be because he interfered in India’s internal affairs over the farmer protests. Trudeau had said that Canada will always be there to protect the rights of peaceful protests, and showed anxiety over the circumstances. The concern was taken up with the Canadian authorities both in Ottawa and New Delhi and India communicated that such remarks about the “internal affairs of India are unwarranted, unacceptable and would damage India-Canada bilateral relations.”