India touts globalisation as powerful tool to fight Covid-19

India has asked Africa to unite, and together fight the coronavirus pandemic and future epidemics.

Drawing lessons from the pandemic, India is convinced that Africa, a continent with more than one billion people, is better placed to fight the deadly virus only if it unites.

Speaking in Nairobi during the opening ceremony for the refurbished Mahatma Gandhi Library at the University of Nairobi, India’s minister for external affairs, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, cited globalisation and concerted efforts as a strategy to overcome global challenges.

“Our sense of security has also undergone a radical change. We now perceive health and food security as more intrinsic to national security,” Dr Jaishankar said.

Enhance capacities

“This makes a compelling case for enhancing capacities in Africa and that would only happen with partnerships genuinely aimed at Africa’s welfare, to deliver more extensively on development projects. Indeed, the development itself will only unfold when it is based on deeper capacities.”

He said that “the direct lesson from the pandemic is the need for decentralised globalisation”.

“The covid-19 pandemic has brought home the dangers of relying on limited geographies,” he said. “When supply chains were disrupted, and demand outstripped supply, the more vulnerable were inevitably short-changed.”

Acknowledging that the world today is more interdependent, he said globalisation apply not just to resources and markets but also production centres, which he said remain concentrated in the hands of a few.

Africa’s voice

India also believes that decisions made by the international community will be truly global only when Africa’s voice is adequately heard.

Both Kenya and India are non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two years.

“The rise of modern Africa is not just a noble sentiment. It is a long awaited expectation,” he said. “It is only when this continent of more than a billion people picks its rightful place that the full diversity of our planet will find proper expression,”

India, like Kenya and other African countries, he said, continues to face the same challenges and struggles, “…particularly when it comes to public health”.

Having been hit hard by the third wave of the coronavirus, Dr Jaishankar said, India stands with Africa in solidarity and as a strategy.

Speaking at the same event, Education PS Simon Nabukwesi pleaded with the Indian government to help make pharmaceuticals cheaper for low-income Kenyans.

Vaccines access

Kenya and India, during the third meeting of the India-Kenya joint commission, agreed to “emphasise the need for equitable and affordable access to vaccines and ensuring treatment to all”, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo said.

Speaking at a different, joint press briefing with the Indian external affairs minister at Serena Hotel to mark the end of the third meeting of the India Kenya joint commission meeting, Ms Omamo said the two countries were discussing the possibility of establishing joint ventures in pharmaceutical manufacturing that will make affordable drugs more easily available.

During the Indian minister’s two-day visit, the two countries discussed an array of issues, including collaboration on the UN Security Council during the 2021-2022 term that they are both serving as non-permanent members.

“The two sides have reaffirmed their commitment to a rules-based multilateral system and underlined the important role of the United Nations in addressing global challenges,” CS Omamo said.

The fourth meeting of the joint commission will be held in India.

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