Committed to serve the interest of humanity: Indian Ambassador to Bahrain

The following is the message from the Indian Ambassador to Bahrain Piyush Srivastava on the occasion of his country’s 72nd Republic Day:  

On the occasion of the 72nd Republic Day of India, I convey warm greetings and felicitations to all members of Indian community and friends of India in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

During the last year, the global community has faced the major health challenge of our times, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both India and Bahrain have successfully dealt with the pandemic.

In line with Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision and Government of India's flagship program of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India)’, India has, a few days back, undertaken the world’s largest vaccination drive by rolling out two “made-in-India” vaccines, COVISHIELD and COVAXIN.

In the first phase, 30 million health and frontline workers are being vaccinated. This number will increase to a staggering 300 million in the second phase of our vaccination.

As a trusted and dependable partner, despite the huge domestic demand, India is committed to supplying the quality and affordable vaccines to friendly countries in this time of crisis.

During the launch of India's vaccination drive on 16th January 2021, Prime Minister Modi said: “We are committed that India's vaccines, our production capacity, serve the interest of the whole humanity.”

India, because of its strengths in the biopharmaceutical and vaccines domains, is one of the major centres in the transnational efforts to counter the pandemic.

Our two countries have had an excellent collaboration in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic – be it the support of the Government of Bahrain for the Indian community, our ‘Vande Bharat Mission’, the ‘Air Bubble’ arrangement between the two countries for facilitating the travel of people of both sides, or supply of medicines and paramedics to the Kingdom by India.

This is in line with the deep-rooted civilisational and close ties between India and Bahrain, which have been further expanded and diversified in recent years.

The regular high-level political interaction and exchanges continued even during the pandemic period. His Majesty the King and Honorable Prime Minister of India held a telephonic conversation in April 2020.

Honourable External Affairs Minister of India Dr S Jaishankar visited the Kingdom on 24-25 November 2020 to personally convey Government of India’s condolences on the sad demise of the HRH former Prime Minister of Bahrain, Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and to discuss and review various aspects of our bilateral cooperation in diverse sectors and regional and multilateral matters of mutual interest.

We are looking forward to welcoming HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, for the next meeting of India-Bahrain High Joint Commission in New Delhi.

The vibrant and dynamic Indian community in Bahrain constitute a key link in our bilateral relations. With their professionalism and high standards of work ethics, they have made a name for themselves in Bahrain and made a significant contribution to the economic development of the Kingdom.

This year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award given by the Government of India to Mr Baburajan for his distinguished community service in Bahrain is testimony to this.

I take this opportunity to convey our gratitude to the Leadership and the Government of Bahrain for ensuring the well-being, safety and security of the Indian community in Bahrain, and their exceptional care and support to the community in the difficult times of COVID-19 pandemic.

I am confident that the deep bonds of friendship and close cooperation between our two countries would grow from strength to strength for the mutual benefit of our two countries and peoples.