Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump on Saturday agreed to deploy full strength of the partnership between the two countries to fight the deadly coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The two leaders held an extensive telephonic conversation and discussed the crisis that the world is currently facing.
Taking micro-blogging site, Twitter, PM Modi said, “Had an extensive telephone conversation with President Donald Trump. We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19.”
On April 2, PM Modi held a telephone conversation with Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two leaders discussed the ongoing pandemic, the situation in their respective countries, and the importance of international collaboration for fighting the health crisis. They also shared views on the inadequate availability of medicines and medical equipment required during the pandemic and agreed to explore avenues of cooperation in this regard.
The German Chancellor agreed with PM Modi that the COVID-19 pandemic is an important turning point in modern history, and offers an opportunity to forge a new vision of globalisation focused on the shared interests of humanity as a whole.
The Prime Minister informed Merkel about the recent Indian initiatives to disseminate simple yoga exercises and immunity-enhancing Ayurvedic remedies for people of the world. The Chancellor agreed that such practices could be very beneficial for enhancing psychological and physical health, especially under the present lockdown conditions.
On Saturday, PM Modi chaired a joint meeting of the Empowered Groups constituted for planning and ensuring implementation of COVID-19 response activities in the country.
In a series of tweets, PM wrote that he reviewed countrywide preparedness regarding the availability of hospitals, proper isolation and quarantine facilities as well as disease surveillance, testing and critical care training and also directed the concerned groups and officials to ensure sufficient production, procurement and availability of all essential medical equipment such as PPEs, masks, gloves and ventilators.
Various actions have been initiated by the Centre along with the States/UTs for the prevention, containment and management of COVID-19 in the country. These are being regularly monitored at the highest level.
