Global offers of support
AS INDIA battles a catastrophic coronavirus wave, a number of countries and global leaders have offered their support.
THE UK: London has sent more than 600 pieces of equipment to New Delhi to support its fight against the virus, following a request from India and with prime minister Boris Johnson pledging the UK would do “all it can” to help.
The Foreign Office, which is funding the aid, said the first shipment arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday, with further shipments following later in the week.
In total, nine airline container-loads of supplies, including 495 oxygen concentrators, 120 non-invasive ventilators and 20 manual ventilators, will be sent to India, said the Foreign Office.
THE US: President Joe Biden said the government was “determined to help India in its time of need”.
The US has assured India that it will immediately provide the specific raw materials required for manufacturing the Oxford AstraZeneca (known as Covishield in India) vaccine. It has also identified supplies of therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which will immediately be made available.
“The US is working closely with the Indian government to rapidly deploy additional support and supplies during an alarming Covid-19 outbreak. As we provide assistance, we pray for the people of India –including its courageous healthcare workers,” vice-president Kamala Harris tweeted.
THE EU: India has asked the EU to send medical oxygen and Gilead’s antiviral drug Remdesivir to fight a surge in Covid-19 cases, an EU official said on Monday (26), adding that the aid could be made available soon.
“The Indians have asked for medical oxygen and antivirals, notably Remdesivir,” a spokesman for the EU Commission said.
Asked about whether the EU would limit flights from
India, the spokesman said the EU continued to discourage non-essential travel to and from third countries.
RUSSIA: The Russian pharmaceutical firm Pharmasyntez said on Monday it was ready to ship up to a million packs of Remdesivir to India by the end of May, once it receives Russian government approval.
The Russian drugmaker said it was waiting for a legal basis by which it could send shipments of the generic version it produces of the Covid-19 drug Remdesivir.
GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government is “urgently” preparing a “mission of support” for India. In a message, Merkel said Germany stands in solidarity with India in the “common fight” against the pandemic.
AUSTRALIA: The health minister Greg Hunt said Australia will send oxygen, ventilators, and PPE to India as part of an immediate support package.
SAUDI ARABIA: The country has shipped 80 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen to India as the country was running low on supplies. The shipment was being undertaken in cooperation with the Adani group and Linde company. “This first shipment of 4 ISO cryogenic tanks with 80 tons of liquid oxygen is now on its way from Dammam to Mundra,” Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani said in a tweet.
FRANCE: President Emmanuel Macron expressed solidarity with India and offered his country’s support. “France is with you in this struggle, which spares no one. We stand ready to provide our support,” he said.
PAKISTAN: Islamabad has offered to provide relief support, including ventilators, to India, and said the two countries can explore possible further cooperation. The Foreign Office in a statement last weekend said Pakistan was ready to send specific items quickly once the modalities were worked out.
DR GAVID RAND is a principal lecturer at the University of Greenwich; a member of the advisory committee set up by the CWGC; and an academic specialising on the history of the Indian army in the 19th century.
“I think the report is overdue. It’s a serious, learned piece of work and shows very clearly that there were significant inequalities in the way in which Commonwealth and colonial soldiers were treated. I hope it will be widely read and help to start a much broader conversation about history, Empire and race in Britain.
“And that means recognising the enormous contributions made to Britain’s history by people from the subcontinent and from other parts of the Empire, not just in the First and Second World Wars, but to all of British history from at least the 17th century.
“It’s dreadful that children in this country are not exposed to informed teaching produced by working academics.
“Indians served on the Western
Front. They then served in what we now call the Middle East. And there are various examples, particularly in the Mesopotamian theatre, where Indian soldiers’ graves were not marked, where bodies were not recovered and decisions were taken not to attempt to recover or to rebury bodies.
“So that is one example of where Indian soldiers were treated in a way that was different to European soldiers.
“There is some evidence there may be some under-reporting of Indian casualties in the Commonwealth War Graves database.
“In Mesopotamia, these would be soldiers who fell and were buried in temporary graves or indeed sometimes just left exposed on the battlefield or buried in mass graves. They could have been recovered and brought to a central place of burial.
“But there were some cases in Mesopotamia where decisions were taken not to attempt to recover bodies and bring them to a central grave.”