India's gift of 5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines reach Sri Lanka

New Delhi [India], January 28 (ANI): A consignment containing 5,00,000 doses of 'Made in India' coronavirus vaccine reached Colombo, Sri Lanka on Thursday. 

Taking to Twitter, External Affair Minister S Jaishankar said: "A dependable partner, a reliable friend. Made in India vaccines reach Sri Lanka now."

After providing coronavirus vaccines to several countries including Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives, India has established its position as a reliable partner in COVID-19 assistance by dispatching 'Covishield' vaccines to Bahrain and Sri Lanka.

The consignment of 5,00,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines is being provided by India as a gift to Sri Lanka under the Vaccine Maitri initiative. 

This comes days after Sri Lanka's drugs regulatory body -- National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA)--gave a go-ahead to Oxford Astrazeneca's vaccine.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Sri Lanka from January 5-7 upon the invitation of his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena. During the visit, Sri Lankan side requested India for urgent delivery of Covid vaccines. The supply of over 5 lakh vaccine doses is a fulfilment of that request.

The delivery of the COVID-19 vaccines to Sri Lanka is a fulfilment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment made to his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa during the virtual bilateral summit held in September 2020 for all possible support to Sri Lanka for minimizing the health and economic impact of the pandemic.

Earlier, India supplied COVID-19 vaccines to neighbouring countries including Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh under the Neighbourhood First policy. (ANI)