Will achieve target of producing billion vaccine doses for South Asia region till 2022: Top White House official

By Reena Bhardwaj
Washington [US], June 9 : President Joe Biden's policy coordinator for the Indo-Pacific region Kurt Campbell on Tuesday said that he is confident of completing the target of production of a billion vaccine doses for the region by the end of year 2022.
The top White House official for Asia said that by the end of 2022 the target would be met, despite the COVID-19 crisis in India, where they are proposed to be made. Campbell said that he is "relatively confident on the production of a billion vaccine doses for the region".
Addressing an online event hosted by the Center for a New American Security think tank, Campbell said Washington had been in close consultation with India and others involved in the project.
"This is an extremely difficult period for Indian friends. The United States has tried to stand with Delhi and to bring others, both in the private and public sector, to support them," he said.
"Our discussions with both our partners in the private sector and also in government suggests that we are - knock on wood - still on track for 2022."
"I think we understand, the only way to be effective, to counter this, is through vaccine diplomacy. We're trying to step that up more generally," he said.
Talking about China, Campbell just weeks ago had said Chinese policies under President Xi are in large part responsible for the shift in US policy, on Tuesday once again stressed how China has only itself to blame for a global backlash against its policies.
"Over the last year or two the country that has done the most to create problems for China is not the United States but China," the US coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the National Security Council said at the virtual event.
He also discussed Myanmar. Campbell said the situation inside military-ruled Myanmar was deeply concerning and continuing to get worse and the United States was looking at all possible scenarios there.
"It's undeniable that the violence is spiralling. We're seeing not only challenges from the ethnic insurgencies but increasingly, much more organized and purposeful and determined opposition on the democratic side that has refused to go down."
"It's hard not to be discouraged by what we've seen," he said when asked if he saw the possibility of state collapse in Myanmar. "I would say the situation inside the country is concerning. And the situation is continuing to get worse. I think we are looking at all scenarios." Campbell asserted.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since a February 1 military coup, with daily protests in towns and cities and fighting in borderlands between the military and ethnic minority militias, some of which have only existed for a few weeks.