‘Degree Of Seriousness Gauged By Behavior’: India On Pak’s Delayed SAARC Corona Fund Contribution
Mumbai: After Pakistan promised to donate the US $ 3 million to the SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund, India on Friday extended the “initial commitment” made by other member countries and said the ‘degree of seriousness’ of each nation can be gauged by its behaviour.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office announced on Thursday that it will contribute the US $ 3 million to the South Asian Association for Regional Corporation (SAARC) COVID-19 emergency fund. This comes weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed to set up the fund during a video conference of SAARC member countries.
While SAARC countries immediately responded to a united call for the COVID-19 emergency fund, Pakistan recently made its contribution.
“It is up to each SAARC member state to decide the timing, manner and implementation of its SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund commitments. Where India is concerned, the commitment made by the Prime Minister is today in an advanced stage of implementation,” Ministry of External Affair’s spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in a statement
“Assistance in materials and services has been extended to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. These SAARC countries have also made initial commitments to fund. The degree of severity of each nation can be seen from their behaviour, “he added.
All other SAARC countries immediately donated to the COVID-19 Emergency Fund, except Pakistan.
As Afghanistan contributed one million USD in discussions between the heads of SAARC countries to strengthen the partnership and to fight the pandemic.
Nepal gave 100 million NPR to the SAARC emergency fund, Maldives government contributed USD 200,000 to the COVID-19 emergency fund.
Bhutan has paid USD 100,000 to the SAARC emergency fund, while India has made a preliminary offer of USD 10 million for the fund.
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