She conveyed the request to Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Italy on Monday (June 28, 2021).
"With the Indian foreign minister, I expressed my hope that a concession of export permits for some therapeutic medicines, that Indonesia needs, from India to Indonesia, can be granted," she said in a written statement issued on Tuesday.
Currently, owing to the COVID-19 case surge in India, the country has imposed temporary restrictions on the exports of vaccines and medicines, Marsudi informed.
Indonesia, however, needs the drugs to deal with its COVID-19 transmission rate, which has reached about 21 thousand new cases a day, she added.
"Indonesia's request is being considered by India positively, and Indonesia has conveyed the details of the medicines needed at this time," she said.
Apart from India, the minister said she has also communicated with the Japanese government on the issue of sharing of vaccine doses.
In response, Japan has said it will donate around 2 million doses of finished COVID-19 vaccines to Indonesia, Marsudi disclosed. The vaccines are expected to arrive in July this year, she added.
During a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Marsudi also explored cooperation in the procurement of therapeutic drugs.
"The Japanese foreign minister will soon see the possibility of cooperation in providing therapeutic drugs that Indonesia needs at this time," she noted.
During a bilateral meeting with the foreign ministers of countries such as India, Japan, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, and Spain, the Indonesian foreign minister again emphasized the importance of strengthening diplomacy in the health sector to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Marsudi, the current global vaccination program has provided a glimmer of hope for ending the pandemic, but that hope is not evenly distributed throughout the world due to the high vaccine gap between developed and developing countries.
“The emergence of new variants has pushed the world to speed up vaccination equally. In this regard, Indonesia continues to encourage the implementation of equal access to vaccines for all countries," she said.
Indonesia has so far encouraged efforts to accelerate vaccinations through dose-sharing, supporting the TRIPS waiver proposal on the temporary removal of patents for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, among other things.
The country is supporting the proposal and efforts to close the financing gap for Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which is a groundbreaking global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. (INE)
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: Yashinta DP, Fardah
Editor: Suharto
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