India's Foreign Ministry briefs 190 diplomatic missions on Covid response; vaccine development

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs organized a briefing session on COVID-19 related issues for diplomatic missions and international organisations in the first such mega exercise of its kind. More than 190 heads of diplomatic missions and international organisations and their representatives participated in the briefing. ET was the first to report that MEA led by the Foreign Secretary will hold this mega session.

Since March 2020, India has proactively engaged with its partner countries in our joint fight against COVID-19 by supplying medicines, diagnostic kits and medical equipment as well as by organizing online training programmes for testing and case management.

As its vaccine development programme progressed, India organized training programmes on clinical trials for neighbouring countries in which nearly 90 experts from 8 countries participated. We stand ready to expand these cooperation programmes with the neighbouring and other interested countries.


In Friday’s briefing, the participants were briefed by Dr. Vinod K Paul, Member, NITI Aayog; Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor; Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan; Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology; Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology; Dr. Shekhar Mande, Director General of Council for Scientific & Industrial Research; and Abhishek Singh, President & CEO of E-Governance Division of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

Participants were briefed on India’s management of COVID-19, its vaccine development programme, software and related issues of vaccine delivery system and international cooperation, officials said, adding, It was conveyed that MEA would organize a tour of heads of diplomatic missions and international organisations to Pune where they can visit the institutions engaged in COVID-19 related research and vaccine development programmes.

The briefing for Diplomatic Missions on Covid-19 vaccines and related developments in India was excellent. Very informative and well prepared, with distinguished speakers from Health Sector. All of the Diplomatic Corp that attended were very grateful, pleased and interested in the subject. Kudos to Foreign Secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Chief of Protocol, Nagesh Singh, for organizing this for the Heads of Missions and Diplomatic community, in a socially distant and safe environment

-Dean of Diplomatic Corps in India Ambassador Hans Dannenberg Castellanos