NEW DELHI, March 24, 2020 (BSS) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
expressed his gratitude to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her
contribution to the Covid-19 Emergency Fund to fight the deadly coronavirus.
“Grateful to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh for announcing $1.5
million as contribution to the COVID-19 Emergency Fund,” he tweeted on
Monday.
The Indian premier said, “Through our solidarity and working together, we
will overcome challenges posed by COVID-19.”
Prime Minister Modi’s remarks came a day after his Bangladesh counterpart
Sheikh Hasina announced to contribute 1.5 million US dollar to the Covid-19
Emergency Fund to combat coronavirus that claimed over 16,500 lives so far
and infected more than 3,75,000 globally.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed creation of the fund during
video conferencing with the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation) leaders recently.
India committed to contribute $10m to the fund initially to fight against
the deadly coronavirus.
Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen on Sunday told BSS that Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina verbally approved the fund in favour of SAARC secretariat to
face health hazards due to outbreak of the coronavirus in South Asia.
He said the foreign ministry will send note verbal to SAARC secretariat and
Indian government about Bangladesh’s commitment to provide USD 1.5 million to
the SAARC health hazard prevention fund.
The minister said currently, this health hazard prevention SAARC fund will
be used to combat Covid-19 but later it will be utilized to deal with
preventing people of this region from other health risks.
Meanwhile, Nepal and Afghanistan declared to provide $1 million each and
Maldives and Bhutan committed to offer 200,000 and 100,000 US dollars
respectively to the fund.