Kathmandu: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has written a letter to US President Joe Biden requesting vaccine support.
The Nepali Embassy in Washington DC said that Ambassador Yuba Raj Khatiwada handed over the letter to Ervin Massinga, State Department’s Senior Advisor, in an in-person meeting at the State Department.
Earlier, President Bhandari had sent a letter to her Indian counterpart Ram Nath Kovind and had a telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping. During the conversation, Chinese President Xi had announced providing additional one million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to Nepal as grant assistance.
Also Read: Is Nepal gearing up its ‘vaccine diplomacy’ with China?
During the meeting, Ambassador Khatiwada briefed Massinga about the latest pandemic situation in Nepal and Nepal’s vaccination plan and reiterated Nepal’s request for vaccine support from the US government.
Ambassador Khatiwada conveyed Nepal’s intention to buy J & J vaccines from Janssen Infectious Diseases and Vaccines Pharmaceutical Company, according to the statement issued by the Embassy.
The statement added that Advisor Massinga assured that the US government deeply sympathizes with Nepal’s current pandemic situation, and that the US government will expedite the process, as far as possible, for the allocation of a fair share of the AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Nepal through the COVAX and bilateral arrangements.
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