India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken have discussed increasing Covid-19 vaccine production capacity during their meeting in London. After their meeting in early May, Mr Jaishankar said that they “discussed how our collaboration could help globally in expanding vaccination capabilities”, according to a transcript of his remarks distributed by the State Department. “Among the many subjects we discussed was, first and foremost, the strong support we are getting from the US on dealing with the Covid situation. We are very, very appreciative of that,” the Minister said.

Mr Blinken said: “We remember so well when India came to our assistance in the early days of Covid in a very important and powerful way, and we are joined in this fight together and determined to do everything we can to help, and then for our two countries to continue to work even more closely together to help deal with what is a truly global challenge.”