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The following is a statement posted by the Indian High Commission on its Facebook page in response to Newsday's editorial published last Friday.

The High Commission of India in Port of Spain takes strong objection to the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday's editorial titled A Passage to India of March 5, 2021. In the reference the High Commission would like to underline the following points:
i. What the editorial calls "India's philanthropy" is India's "Vaccome Maitri" or "Vaccine Friendship". Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi, in the middle of the pandemic, in September last year had pledged that as the largest vaccine-producing country in the world, India's vaccine production and delivery capacity would be used to help all humans in fighting this crisis.
On February 4, 2021, he tweeted, "We believe that the world is a family and want to play our role in strengthening the fight against COVID-19". The foundation of the Vaccine Maitri initiative is India's civilisational adage of "Vasudhai Kutumbakam" (the world is one family). Living up to that spirit, India has been extending her hand of friendship by supplying "make in India" vaccines by donation and commercial arrangements.
As of March 1, 2021, India has provided 36.37 million vaccine doses to 35 countries and UN health workers and peacekeepers. In the coming days, it will supply vaccines to 39 more countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific Islands. It is under this same spirit that India also trains and empowers human resources of over 160 countries every year under the flagship human-centric Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (TTE) programme at its own cost.
ii. It is up to a sovereign government to either request or "accept" help from any other sovereign government at a time of crisis. India has never imposed itself on any other sovereign government to calibrate its external agreement.
iii. India is the largest democracy in the world with about 1.4 billion population and over 90 million electorates. It is a vibrant parliamentary democracy where laws are passes and policies formulated after a vigorous debate in parliament houses. India is proud of its unity embedded in diversity. The Indian constitution recognises 22 official languages. It ensures social, economic and political justice; liberty of belief, faith and worship and equality status and opportunity, irrespective of gender,c reed, religion, occupation and wealth.
iv. It is unfortunate that the land of Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Gautam Buddha, Mahaveer and Mahatma Gandhi, and the land whose people admire and respect world leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Simon Bolivar, Dr Eric Williams has been called the "devil". It is also unfortunate that efforts are being made to demean the stature of a country with which the rainbow nation of Trinidad and Tobago shares inseparable, historical, cultural and friendly relations.
The post Indian High Commission responds to Newsday editorial on vaccine diplomacy appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.