‘If India had not given us the vaccine, we would not have even got to smell it’, Jaishankar told why many countries say this

Chennai: External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar on Friday addressed students at IIT Madras on several issues. He openly discussed India’s ancient civilization, democracy, foreign policy, vaccine policy and relations with neighboring countries. Talking about the Covid pandemic and the vaccine, Jaishankar said, ‘In my entire career, I have never seen a more emotional impact on the world than giving a vaccine. People cry remembering the first batch of vaccine. Covid was a bad phase, but we left it behind. At that time, developed western countries had stocked 8 times more vaccines than their population, but were not giving even 10 thousand doses to small countries.

‘If India had not given it, we would not have even got a sniff of the vaccine’

Jaishankar said, ‘Despite bearing the responsibility of 1.4 billion people, we showed solidarity by giving 1-2 lakh doses to small countries. Today, people of Latin America, Caribbean and small island countries of the Pacific say that if India had not given it, we would not have even got a taste of the vaccine. We were the world’s most efficient vaccine producer. People don’t realize how important global engagement and responsibility was, because the world also helped us. We must accept that the supply chain came from outside India. The main thing is not to think of home and abroad separately. Even if there is a problem at home, one should help the world because these two go together.

‘Most neighbors received the first vaccine consignment from India’

Answering a question on the unrest in Bangladesh and India’s neighboring policy, he said, ‘I went to Bangladesh 2 days ago. On behalf of India, attended the funeral of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. We have a variety of neighbors. If a neighbor is good or at least does no harm, our nature is to help him. Wherever there is a spirit of good neighborliness in our neighbourhood, India invests, helps, shares. In Covid, most of the neighbors got the first vaccine consignment from India.

‘Neighbors know that India’s progress is a rising wave’

Jaishankar further said, ‘Some neighbors went through very difficult times, like Sri Lanka, where we gave a package of $ 4 billion, while their agreement with the IMF was going very slowly. Most neighbors know that India’s progress is a rising tide. If India grows, everyone will grow. I took this message to Bangladesh. Jaishankar said that India is one of the very few ancient civilizations in the world that have survived as large modern nations today. He said, ‘There are very few ancient civilizations in the world that have survived as large modern nations today, and we are one of them. We are proud of our history, and very few countries have such a history.

‘…then democracy would have been limited to only a few areas’

The Foreign Minister said, ‘By choosing democracy we made democracy a universal idea in the world. If we had not adopted democracy, this idea would have remained limited to only a few areas. We have a duty to present our thinking, values, culture and history to the world. But all this can be done with friendly partnership, because partnership with Western countries is important. This is how we make the world a better place. We often use the term ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ but what does it mean? Its message is that we never saw the world as an enemy or a threat from which we had to save ourselves.

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