Kathmandu, 17 May: The Chinese side has expressed the commitment to provide five million doses of Verosheel produced by the Sinopharm, informed Susheel Lamshal, charge d’affaires in the Nepal Embassy in Beijing.
One week ago, the Nepal Embassy had written a letter to the Health Ministry via the Foreign Ministry informing about the Chinese support. However, the Health Ministry has not responded to the Chinese support for Nepal, reports ekantipur.com.
In the last week of April, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had expressed a commitment to provide further support to five countries Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh via a video conference.
The latest commitments expressed by the Chinese leaders confirm that China is ready to provide all kind of support for Civid-19 ridden country Nepal, however, China is waiting for Nepal’s request to receive the Chinese support.
China has already helped Nepal by providing eight hundred thousand doses of vaccines on the grant.
It seems the government led by K.P. Sharma Oli is dependent on India in receiving the Covid vaccine. Health minister Hirdyesh Tripathi instead of responding to the Chinese offer is delaying the deal by blaming others. He believes that it would be easy for him to bring vaccine from the south rather than from the north.
Presently, India herself is in crisis due to the surge of the second wave of the Covid-19. It is not yet clear when Nepal is going to receive one million doses of the vaccine which the government has already procured. Still, minister Tripathi is not confident about bringing vaccine from the north. India herself is seeking support from other countries and the Oli government here is eying on India for the support.
Prime Minister Oli and health minister Tripathi’s reluctance in taking the support from China is odd.
Oli is not willing to turn towards China even during the crisis period. Oli believes that the Chinese side developed relations with his rival groups, from which, Oli is not happy. Also, presently, Oli is facing a political crisis and he is not ready to receive Chinese support by annoying India, say sources, according to ekantipur.com.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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