Zimbabwe envoy seeks vaccine supply to Africa
Even as India is stepping up its engagement with Africa including its initiative of opening 18 new embassies in various African nations, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to India has expressed the hope that New Delhi can resume vaccine supplies overseas including to his country once the Covid situation has fully stabilised in India, adding that India’s vaccine supplies earlier this year to the world showed “an element of sacrifice and solidarity”.
Speaking to this newspaper, Zimbabwean ambassador Dr Godfrey Majoni Chipare highlighted the decades-old solidarity between the two nations, pointing out that Zimbabwe was the first African country to approve India’s indigenously-made and developed Covid vaccine Covaxin. Thanking close friend India for helping his country during the pandemic, the Zimbabwean envoy pointed out that early this year, India had donated 75,000 vials of Covaxin to Zimbabwe.
Understanding India’s current situation and its harrowing experience with the Covid second wave this Summer, Dr. Chipare acknowledged that “charity begins at home” and that “it is only fair that the Indian people should benefit from India’s vaccine successes”, when asked about India currently focusing only on vaccinating its own 1.3 billion population. “Of course, the upsurge in Covid cases during the second wave in India has interrupted India’s delivery schedule of vaccines to foreign countries,” he said.
Pointing to time-tested ties between the two nations, Dr Chipare said, “India and Zimbabwe are excellent friends and we have been cooperating in the UN and the Nonaligned Movement (NAM). India played a great role in our freedom struggle by providing us moral support and material assistance and has always been a benchmark of mutually beneficial solidarity. In the postIndependence era, our friendship has continued to flourish.” He added, “While relations are excellent on the political front, we need to strengthen our bilateral economc cooperation. During the visit of Vice President Hon Venkaiah Naidu to Zimbabwe in November 2018 , six MoUs were signed in various fields and we look forward to their expeditious implementation.”