In UNGA resolutions, Bhutan and Nepal thanked India for providing COVID-19 vaccines.
In their UN General Assembly address on Monday, Bhutan and Nepal expressed gratitude and appreciation to India for its “heartwarming goodwill” and “valuable support” in supplying COVID-19 vaccines under New Delhi’s “Vaccine Maitri initiative,” which enabled neighbouring countries to vaccinate their populations during the pandemic.
During the high-level 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, Bhutan’s Foreign Minister Lyonpo Tandi Dorji said Bhutan would not be spared the impacts of COVID-19.
Our vaccination campaign has been recognized as an unlikely success, and more than 90 per cent of our population is fully vaccinated today. This, in no small measure, was made possible due to the heartwarming goodwill of friends and partners, including India, whose Vaccine Maitri initiative enabled the whole first round of vaccination for our adult population,” Dorji said in his address from the UNGA podium on the last day of the General Debate.
Additionally, Bhutan expressed gratitude to the United States, Denmark, Bulgaria, Croatia, and China, with whom it could obtain vaccines at a critical time. Furthermore, we appreciate our bilateral partners and multilateral agencies’ logistical support, financial support, medicines, and equipment. Without your support, we would not have been able to achieve our success,” Bhutan’s Foreign Minister said.
During his address to the General Assembly, Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal also expressed gratitude for the vaccines India provided to his country.
Almost everyone received at least one dose of vaccination in Nepal, 96 percent of the target population. The UN System and our immediate neighbours – India and China – are greatly appreciated,” he said.
As part of the Vaccine Maitri initiative of the Indian government, more than 250 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed to over 100 countries, including nearly 95 lakh doses to Nepal and 5.5 lakh doses to Bhutan.
