15 March 2020. Kathmandu
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested a collaboration, not confusion to fight COVID-19.
PM Modi suggested setting up of a COVID-19 emergency fund saying that India will contribute $10 million for the same.
He said that Indian health experts “will be on standby at your disposal if required.”
“We can also quickly arrange online training capsules for your emergency teams to raise the capacities of the SAARC nations’ emergency staff,” he said.
“We could share this with SAARC partners,” he said suggesting that the member-states can make the best use of the existing facilities such as the SAARC Disaster Management Center.
“Looking ahead, we could create a common platform to coordinate research on controlling epidemic diseases in the South Asian region,” PM Modi said.
Saying that this is not the first nor the last such pandemic that will affect the people and the countries, Modi said, “We can also ask our experts on brainstorming on the longer term economic consequences of COVID-19.”
