Marcelo Ebrard thanked the Serum Institute of India for supplying COVID-19 vaccines “when we didn't have any”

As part of his tour of countries in the Middle East, on March 30, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard began his agenda in India, where he arrived on the night of Tuesday (Mexico time) and where he will hold discussions in the aerospace and pharmaceutical fields.

In one of his meetings, the also head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) met with Parag Deshmukh, from the Serum Institute of India, whom he thanked in person for the supply of 800,000 doses against COVID-19 that the laboratory supplied to Mexico when “we had none” in February 2021.

And, it should be recalled, the Serum Institute has been one of the suppliers of AstraZeneca vaccines - manufactured in that country -, which has supplied 2.03 million doses to Mexico for its National Vaccination Day.

Currently, more than a year after the first application of the biological, the Aztec nation has distributed 191 million 907 thousand 868 doses, with which it has been immunized 85 million 580 thousand 293 people, according to the latest report by the Ministry of Health (SSA).

It should be noted that the first official meeting of the Mexican diplomat was with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, whose dialogue revolved around the bilateral relationship, as well as investment, cooperation for drugs and vaccines, international order and multilateralism.

“We are moving towards a strategic and increasingly close relationship,” Ebrard posted on his Twitter account.

For his part, the Foreign Minister of India also issued a statement in which he called the meeting “a warm and productive dialogue” where cooperation in the trade and investment, science, technology and space sectors was discussed: “Our frequent meetings will continue to provide greater energy to our relationship”, highlighted.

Similarly, the Mexican official met with Mansuj Mandaviya, Minister of Health, with whom he discussed the issues of cooperation in the digitization of medical information and medicines.

He also held a dialogue with the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Jitendra Sigh, for the development of green hydrogen, digital economy, robotics in space, immunotherapy and biotechnology projects.

Along the same lines, it should be recalled that Ebrard participated in the panel on Climate Change at the Doha Forum, Qatar, on 26 and 27 March, where he proposed that countries that generate the most greenhouse gases make mandatory contributions to address climate adaptation.

According to the foreign minister, an amount of 100 billion dollars was planned to combat climate change, which has not been achieved and he warned that “there is no more time” to deal with it, so he pointed out that the Climate Adaptation Fund, created in 2021, would have to be implemented globally.

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