Covid-19: India's HCQ largesse for UNSC Chair

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 15

Among the 13 recipients of Indian shipments of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is Dominican Republic which is this month’s chair of the UN Security Council.

India’s first list of 13 countries that will receive shipments of HCQ are Nepal, Germany, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bahrain, US, Germany, Spain, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles and Dominican Republic. Mauritius and Seychelles have already received the first batch of medicines that also includes HCQ tablets, said an official news release.

India’s gesture elicited gratitude from Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. “In these trying time for our country and indeed the whole world, the possibility of procuring this medicine from India will make a tremendous difference because each life saved brings hope to our people,’’ he wrote.

Significantly, as Chair of the UNSC for the month of April, Dominican Republic has overseen a closed-door discussion on Covid which China has stonewalled when it held the Chair of UNSC last month.

The two island nations of Mauritius and Seychelles became the first countries to receive supplies of the anti-Covid drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). Significantly India is eyeing a closer security relationship with both these countries that are strategically placed in the western Indian Ocean. 

Vice Prime Minister of Mauritius Leela Devi received the first batch of 5 lakh tablets of HCQ sent via a special Air India cargo flight from Delhi, said an official release. “The shipment was made possible as a special gesture although a restriction on its export from India continues to be in force in view of the unprecedented prevailing difficult situation because of Covid-19 global pandemic,’’ reminded the release.

This is the first such consignment of essential medicines and a second consignment will follow in the coming days.

Seychelles also received the first consignment of four tonnes of essential lifesaving medicines sent by an Air India special chartered flight.  This too, said the official release, was a “special arrangement made in view of the special relations with Seychelles” and is “yet another manifestation of India’s unwavering commitment to stand with Seychelles, in rain and in shine”.