White House praises India’s vaccine manufacturing capacity

India's vaccine manufacturing capacity came in for high praise during a White House press briefing on October 26, by Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator. While calling India a major exporter of vaccines in the world he termed India's vaccine manufacturing capacity as 'incredible.'

Ashish Jha's comment came in response to a question asking him about his view on India's handling of the COVID crisis. Responding to the question, Jha said, "India because of its incredible manufacturing capacity, has been a major exporter of vaccines." The questioner had also asked about the slowness in India and Quad cooperation, where India was supposed to manufacture the vaccines and Quad was to distribute them across the world.

Quad, also known as Quadrilateral Security Dialogue is a strategic security dialogue between four countries namely, India, US, Australia, and Japan. The main aim of Quad is to support a free and open Indo-Pacific and build supply chains.

"I have not looked at this very closely. My understanding of why it has slowed a bit is because global demand for vaccines has slowed, because, again, we have produced a lot of vaccines," said Jha.

"But I think that Quad partnership is really important, and certainly important to this administration. India is an important manufacturer of vaccines for the world, not just for India itself. It's a really important thing," he added.

(ANI)