The meeting comes ahead of the UN health agency’s decision on approval of indigenous vaccine COVAXIN

Ministry of External Affairs’ Secretary (West), Reenat Sandhu on Tuesday held a ‘productive meeting’ with WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva and discussed issues related to pandemic and its response and also vaccines and traditional medicine.

This was informed by the Ministry of External Affairs through a tweet, stating “Secretary(West) Reenat Sandhu had a productive meeting with DG WHO Dr Tedros in Geneva covering cooperation in health and pandemic response, vaccines and traditional medicine.”

In Geneva the MEA Secretary (West) had also a meeting with Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Daren Tang where she highlighted India’s focus on emerging as a global innovation hub bolstered by a balanced and robust IP regime.

“Taking forward the India-WIPO partnership! Secretary (West) Reenat Sandhu met @WIPO DG Daren Tang. Highlighted India’s focus on emerging as a global innovation hub bolstered by a balanced and robust IP regime,” said Bagchi in a separate tweet.

The Indian Secretary’s meeting with WHO Chief comes ahead of the UN’s health agency’s decision on approval of indigenous vaccine COVAXIN.

According to media reports the WHO’s approval for emergency use of COVAXIN is likely this month.

The WHO has so far approved Covid vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, US pharma majors Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, China's Sinopharm and Oxford-AstraZeneca for emergency use.