BENGALURU: India’s Serum Institute will ship COVID-19 vaccines to Canada within a month, its chief executive said on Monday, in a sign a diplomatic row triggered by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comments on political protests in India was easing.
Trudeau said the months-long protests by farmers on the outskirts of Delhi were concerning, drawing a rebuke from the Indian government which said it was an internal matter.
Last week, however, Trudeau spoke to Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and they discussed the two countries’ commitment to democracy.
Modi also said India would do its best to supply COVID-19 vaccines sought by Canada.
On Monday Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of Serum Institute of India (SII) – the world’s largest vaccine maker – reaffirmed that commitment.
“As we await regulatory approvals from Canada, I assure you, @SerumInstIndia will fly out #COVISHIELD to Canada in less than a month; I’m on it!” Poonawalla said in a Tweet, using the brand name under which Serum produces the shot developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
India’s SII has emerged as a key vaccine supplier amid the pandemic. Canada, like many other countries, is relying on foreign supplies because it is unable to produce the vaccine locally.
Experts and officials say India has been trying to use its vaccine dominance to shore up diplomatic support.
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India to ship COVID-19 vaccines to Canada as diplomatic tension eases
India to ship COVID-19 vaccines to Canada as diplomatic tension eases
- India’s SII has emerged as a key vaccine supplier amid the coronavirus pandemic
South Korea protests Japanese event over disputed islands
SEOUL: South Korea on Sunday protested a Japanese government event commemorating a cluster of disputed islands between the two countries, calling the move an unjust assertion of sovereignty over its territory.
In a statement, the foreign ministry said it strongly objected to the Takeshima Day event held by Japan’s Shimane prefecture and to the attendance of a senior Japanese government official, urging Japan to immediately abolish the ceremony.
The tiny islets, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, which controls them, have long been a source of tension between the two neighbors, whose relations remain strained by disputes rooted in Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
“Dokdo is clearly South Korea’s sovereign territory historically, geographically and under international law,” the ministry said, calling on Japan to drop what it described as groundless claims and to face history with humility.
The ministry summoned a top Japanese diplomat to the ministry building in Seoul to lodge a protest.
A person at Japan’s foreign ministry said no one was available on Sunday to comment. A call to the Prime Minister’s Office went unanswered. The government sent a vice-minister from the Cabinet Office, not a cabinet minister, to the ceremony.
Seoul has repeatedly objected to Japan’s territorial claims over the islands, including a protest issued on Friday over comments by Japan’s foreign minister during a parliamentary address asserting Tokyo’s sovereignty over the islets.
The territory lies in fertile fishing grounds and may sit above enormous deposits of natural gas hydrate that could be worth billions of dollars, Seoul has said.
In a statement, the foreign ministry said it strongly objected to the Takeshima Day event held by Japan’s Shimane prefecture and to the attendance of a senior Japanese government official, urging Japan to immediately abolish the ceremony.
The tiny islets, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, which controls them, have long been a source of tension between the two neighbors, whose relations remain strained by disputes rooted in Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
“Dokdo is clearly South Korea’s sovereign territory historically, geographically and under international law,” the ministry said, calling on Japan to drop what it described as groundless claims and to face history with humility.
The ministry summoned a top Japanese diplomat to the ministry building in Seoul to lodge a protest.
A person at Japan’s foreign ministry said no one was available on Sunday to comment. A call to the Prime Minister’s Office went unanswered. The government sent a vice-minister from the Cabinet Office, not a cabinet minister, to the ceremony.
Seoul has repeatedly objected to Japan’s territorial claims over the islands, including a protest issued on Friday over comments by Japan’s foreign minister during a parliamentary address asserting Tokyo’s sovereignty over the islets.
The territory lies in fertile fishing grounds and may sit above enormous deposits of natural gas hydrate that could be worth billions of dollars, Seoul has said.
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