PM and South African President Zuma welcome WTO agreement on COVID-19 vaccinations

On the sidelines of the G-7 Summit in Schloss Elmau, Germany, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday and applauded the WTO deal achieved in June that encourages the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines in poor nations.

In October 2020, India and South Africa sought a temporary relaxation of intellectual property restrictions, allowing nations to more readily create copies of Covid-19 products. Despite the backing of over 100 countries, this draught has been frozen owing to objections from a small minority of affluent governments.

The WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12), held from June 12 to 17, considered and finally endorsed a new draught ministerial resolution. Rather of waiving intellectual property safeguards, it clarifies current “flexibilities” and makes a five-year exemption to an export limitation for Covid-19 vaccines.

PM Modi and Ramaphosa discussed bilateral relations between the two nations, notably since the signing of the Strategic Cooperation Programme in 2019.

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“They expressed satisfaction with the progress made in the defence, education, and agriculture sectors, and emphasised the importance of further deepening bilateral cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, food security, defence, pharmaceuticals, digital financial inclusion, skill development, insurance, health, and people-to-people contacts,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

“Both presidents also praised a WTO deal agreed in June 2022 that would help poor nations produce COVID-19 vaccines. India and South Africa were the first to propose a dispensation for all WTO members from the execution of certain TRIPS Agreement requirements relating to the prevention, containment, or treatment of COVID-19 “the statement continued.

The continuous collaboration in international organisations and the necessity for their reform, notably the UN Security Council, were also discussed, according to the MEA.

“On the sidelines of the @G7, Prime Minister @narendramodi met South African President @CyrilRamaphosa. We talked about extending our bilateral connections in commerce, investment, defence, medicines, food security, and other areas. They agreed to maintain close collaboration in regional and multilateral fora “MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted about it.

The Prime Minister stated that his discussions with Ramaphosa covered a wide range of topics, including economic cooperation, improved connectivity, and increasing links in food processing and FinTech.

“I was delighted to see President @CyrilRamaphosa in Germany. Our discussions ranged from economic cooperation to increasing connectivity and expanding links in food processing and FinTech “PM Modi took to Twitter.

Along with the South African President, PM Modi met with leaders from France, Indonesia, and the host country, Germany.

The major emphasis of the G7 leaders of state and government on the second day of the meeting in Elmau was sustained support for Ukraine.

On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel German Chancellor Olaf Scholz greeted G7 leaders of state and government to the conference, which Germany is hosting. For three days, the economically powerful democracies gather in Schloss Elmau.

“Our worldview binds us together. We are also bound together by our faith in democracy and the rule of law “Chancellor Scholz stated at the start of the summit.

The G7 chiefs of state and government met for the first time on Sunday to address global economic challenges.

“All G7 countries are concerned about the present issues, which include declining growth rates in some countries, increasing prices, raw material shortages, and supply chain disruption. These are not insignificant difficulties, and it is critical to share responsibilities “Scholz stated.

“The G7 is an excellent community for developing collaborative approaches to today’s concerns. It is critical that we act decisively and as a group. They belong together “He continued.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Modi landed in Munich for the G7 conference.