Mankind will not defeat the pandemic unless everyone comes out of it, said the Prime Minister

Addressing the inaugural session of the 6th edition of Raisina Dialogue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India “within its own limited resources, has tried to walk the talk” in tackling the pandemic which has killed millions of people across the world.

“During this pandemic, in our own humble way, within our own limited resources, we in India have tried to walk the talk. We have tried to protect our own 1.3 billion citizens from the pandemic. At the same time we have also tried to support the pandemic response efforts of others. In our neighborhood, we have encouraged our coordinated regional response to the crisis,” the Prime Minister said.

He said mankind will not defeat the pandemic “unless all of us, everywhere, regardless of the color of our passports, come out of it.”

“That is why, this year despite many constraints, we have supplied vaccines to over 80 countries. We know that the supplies have been modest. We know that the demands are huge. We know that it will be a long time before the entire humanity can be vaccinated. At the same time we also know that hope matters. It matters as much to the citizens of the richest countries as it does to the less fortunate. And so we will continue to share our experiences, our expertise and also our resources with the entire humanity in the fight against the pandemic,” the Prime Minister maintained.

Calling upon participants of the Raisina Dialogue to have a powerful voice for a human centric approach, he said, “While we may be used to having plan A and plan B, there is no planet B, only planet Earth. And so we must remember that we hold this planet merely as trustees for our future generations.”

He said for over a year now, “the best minds of our societies have been engaged in battling this pandemic. All the governments of the world at all levels are trying to contain and control this pandemic. Why did it come to this? Is it perhaps in the race of economic development the concern for welfare of humanity has been left behind.”

“The Covid-19 pandemic has presented us an opportunity to reshape the world order, to reorient our thinking. We must create a system that addresses the problems of today and challenges of tomorrow. And we must think of the entire humanity and not merely of those who are on our side of the borders. Humanity as a whole must be at the center of our thinking and action,” the Prime Minister added.