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The Second Wave of Death and Disaster
India’s overzealousness to launch its vaccine diplomacy programme was preposterous. The crisis manager in the ministry of external affairs may run from pillar to post to procure vaccines but that cannot repair the damage their policies have had on the country. India despite being called the pharmacy of the world has failed to deliver the much-needed doses to its own population. It is time that we paused and introspected as the excessive securitisation of our foreign policy and its obsession with China will only lead to spending more on defence when we actually need to focus on economic and health sectors.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has taken a wise decision to cancel Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to United Kingdom (UK) to attend the Group of Seven (G7) nations summit scheduled from 11 June to 13 June.
Earlier, S Jaishankar, external affairs minister (EAM), committed a diplomatic blunder by attending the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in London in the first week of May. Jaishankar had to sit out and could only participate virtually due to ‘‘possible’’ COVID-19 cases in his delegation. The Indian foreign policy establishment, ever too eager to sit on the global high table, failed to anticipate that the astute G7 diplomats were in no mood to shake hands with the Indian foreign minister coming from the centre of the deadly Covid-19 zone in New Delhi.
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