POBNEWS24, Dhaka Apr 27, 2021: Foreign ministers of five South Asian countries are meeting on today (Tuesday) at the initiative of China to handle the situation in Corona. Chinese State Councilor and Defence Minister Wei Fenghe arrived in Dhaka this morning on a brief visit. State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam received him at Bangabandhu Air Base upon his arrival at 10:45am.
China has offered to discuss three issues, including building a stockpile of emergency medical supplies. However, Bangladesh will insist on getting the vaccines on an emergency basis. Foreign Ministry officials said on Monday.
Besides, Bangladesh there are Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal under Chinese initiative. The other three countries in South Asia, including India, are not involved in the initiative.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials told this correspondent that since November last year, China has been talking about cooperation with five South Asian countries in the fight against Covid 19. Then on April 15, they announced their cooperation with three specific proposals. China’s three proposals include building medical supplies on an emergency basis to tackle Covid 19, establishing a China Cooperation Center with South Asia on Poverty Alleviation and alleviating poverty in rural areas through e-commerce.
A meeting was held at the Foreign Secretary level last Thursday with five countries including Bangladesh on this new initiative of China. There have also been preliminary discussions on cooperation in three areas. However, in today’s virtual meeting of the foreign ministers, it was decided to discuss this in detail.
In this connection, Foreign Secretary Masud bin Momen told reporters at his office on Monday afternoon that three Chinese proposals would be discussed in detail. However, as Bangladesh needs vaccinations on an emergency basis, we will have priority in cooperating in getting vaccinated.
Bangladesh is getting vaccine as a gift from China. Discussions are also underway to get the vaccine commercially and through co-production. In this regard, the Foreign Secretary said, China will give five lakh vaccines as a gift to Bangladesh.
In addition, several Chinese companies have shown interest in providing vaccines commercially in Bangladesh. So far, the Chinese vaccine has not been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). Therefore, the necessary information about China’s vaccination has been sought. After receiving the necessary documents, a decision will be taken about the Chinese vaccine.
There is no vaccine in emergency stocks
Although China’s initiative with five South Asian countries began late last year, there has been no visible progress so far. Last Thursday, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters that Bangladesh had agreed to China’s offer to build an emergency vaccine stockpile for South Asia.
However, diplomatic sources said yesterday that the issue of vaccine was not among China’s three proposals. There has been talk of stockpiling emergency medical supplies to deal with corona.
The source further said that after many negotiations, China is giving five lakh vaccines as a gift to Bangladesh.
At that time the number was very low considering the demand of the huge population of Bangladesh. After several rounds of talks, China said it would increase the gift vaccine from two million to five million. However, out of these five lakhs, it has been proposed to set aside 30,000 doses of vaccine for 15,000 Chinese nationals working in Bangladesh.
