Nepal thanks India for resumption of Vaccine Maitri

New Delhi [India] September 22 : Nepal Envoy Nilambar Acharya on Wednesday thanked India for assistance in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic in the Himalayan country.
Acharya said Nepal, earlier this year, had asked for two million doses of Covishield vaccine from Pune-based Serum Institute of India and hopes to receive the remaining one million as New Delhi recently announced the resumption of its Vaccine Maitri program.
Earlier, India had halted in May as it faced severe shortage of vaccines amid a surging second wave.
"We expect the vaccine supply to resume, including the one million doses. We have also received assistance for Oxygen plant setup and medicine in the fight against COVID19," Acharya, in an exclusive interview, told ANI.
India has promised to supply one million Covid-19 doses as aid-for-help to Nepal, in addition to the two million commercial doses.
India-Nepal diplomatic ties date back to 1947 with age-old connection of history, culture, tradition and religion, as well as political, social, cultural, and economic engagements with each other.
The two countries share more than 1,700 km long border, which largely remains peaceful.
Acharya said the 14-day India-Nepal military exercise being held in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh is an example of "good defence cooperation."
The envoy also said that there could be some problems related to border areas but these would not affect the relationship between the two Asian neighbours.
On the issues of the energy ties between the two countries, Ambassador Acharya said despite some problems India and Nepal are forming strong ties in the energy sector.
"Positive talks are going on in the sector of energy. There some problems, some issues are there, they have been sorted out through talks."