US President Joe Biden praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for handling the COVID pandemic successfully and contrasted India’s success with China’s failure in dealing with coronavirus, according to a senior Indian official.
During a closed session of the Quad Summit, Biden said Prime Minister Modi’s success has shown the world that democracies can deliver, and busted the myth that autocracies like China and Russia can handle the rapidly changing world better because their leadership can take and implement decisions without going through lengthy democratic processes.
Biden praised Prime Minister Modi for handling the Covid pandemic successfully in a democratic manner. Biden contrasted India’s success with China’s failure to handle the pandemic, though both countries are of comparable size remarks appeared to be unscripted as he made a special intervention to say this before his prepared remarks.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also appreciated India’s contribution and recalled that Indian-made vaccines delivered under the Quad Vaccine Initiative were received with gratitude in Thailand and Cambodia recently.
Australia’s newly-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said vaccines supplied by India to other countries have made a difference on the ground, and such success is more valuable than just winning a theoretical debate of ideas.