Washington: Asserting that the “welfare of India is critically important to the US,” Vice-President Kamala Harris, whose mother hailed from India and whose aunt is a physician in Chennai, pledged that the Biden administration will do even more for India than the aid currently in the pipeline and said the two countries and the global community will get through the pandemic together.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, when our hospital beds were stretched, India sent assistance. And today, we are determined to help India in its hour of need. We do this as friends of India, as members of the Asian Quad, and as part of the global community. I believe that if we continue to work together we will all get through this,” Harris said in remarks at a diaspora event to discuss bolstering aid to India.
The vice-president had been trolled by some critics for being indifferent to New Delhi’s fight against the second upsurge of Covid, but she put her close ties to India up front at the event, acknowledging, “As many of you know, generations of my family come from India. My mother was born and raised in India. And I have family members who live in India today.”
“The surge of Covid-19 infections and deaths in India is nothing short of heartbreaking. As soon as the dire nature of the situation became apparent, our administration took action,” she said, noting that India and the United States have the greatest number of Covid-19 cases in the world.
“Already, we have delivered refillable oxygen cylinders, with more to come. We have delivered oxygen concentrators, with more to come. We have delivered N95 masks, and have more ready to send. We have delivered doses of Remdesivir to treat patients,” she added, indicating that the aid from Washington would continue to flow till New Delhi got a grip on the situation.
She also pointed out that the the US has announced its full support for suspending patents on vaccines to help India and other nations vaccinate their people more quickly.
