Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering joined the leaders of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries in a video conference to address Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak in the region.
The conference is an initiative of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Modi proposed starting a COVID-19 Emergency Fund with voluntary contributions from all member countries. India offered USD$ 10 M as a contribution for this fund.
“In this spirit of collaboration let me share a few ideas on what India can offer to this joint effort. I proposed to create a COVID-19 emergency fund and this could be based on voluntary contributions from all of us. India can start with the initial offer of USD$ 10 M for this fund. Any of us can use the fund to meet the cost of immediate actions. Our Foreign secretaries through our embassies can coordinate quickly to finalise the utilisation of this fund,” said Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India.
The Prime Minister also shared India’s experience in combating the spread of the virus so far in India.
Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering welcomed the setting up of the COVID-19 emergency fund and thanked his Indian counterpart for initiating the timely video conference of the SAARC leaders.
“I would like to thank Prime Minister Modi for your excellent leadership to bring all of us together because togetherness is required at all times but more so in a situation like this. I think it is very important that all of us come together and leave behind our differences. It is very important that we communicate very clearly on this, communicate between all the leaders of the world, communicate between central government, with local government, communicate with the health planners and people of the nations. So I think this is very timely,” said Dr Lotay Tshering, the Prime Minister of Bhutan.
Lyonchhen also highlighted Bhutan’s first COVID-19 case and how it was tackled with His Majesty leading the coordination effort.
Meanwhile, SAARC leaders also shared their COVID-19 status in their region and their efforts towards getting it contained.
Choni Dema
