SAARC nations vowed to jointly combat coronavirus as Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed an emergency fund with an initial offer of $10 million from India and asserted that the region can best respond to the pandemic by coming together, and not growing apart.

The underlying message of the video conference was unitedly taking on the virus, but Pakistan used the occasion to raise the Kashmir issue, calling for the immediate lifting of the “lockdown” there to allow disease containment measures.

Why was the conference arranged?

Modi had proposed the formulation of a joint strategy by SAARC nations to fight coronavirus, a suggestion that was backed by all the member states.

Calling on SAARC nations to set an example for the world, Modi had reached out to the eight-member regional grouping and pitched for a video conference among its leaders to chalk out a strong strategy to fight the coronavirus, which has killed more than 6,000 people globally.

His appeal got a prompt response from leaders of Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

India and Pakistan have reported most of the coronavirus cases among SAARC countries.

Who all took part in the video conference?

Apart from Modi, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, Bhutanese premier Lotay Tshering, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and special assistant to Pakistani PM on health Zafar Mirza participated in the video conference.

What were discussed in the conference?

In his opening remarks, Modi said India’s guiding mantra to deal with the virus was “prepare, but don’t panic”. “We were careful to not underestimate the problem, but also to avoid knee-jerk reactions,” he said.

In a significant message, Modi asserted that it was important for the SAARC member countries to work together and said the region can best respond to the coronavirus pandemic by “coming together, not growing apart”.

Modi said it was important to focus on collaboration, not confusion, and preparation, not panic.

After initial remarks by the leaders, Modi made a series of suggestions that were hailed by the SAARC leaders and representatives.

“I propose we create a COVID-19 Emergency Fund. This could be based on voluntary contributions from all of us. India can start with an initial offer of $10 million for this fund. Any of us can use the fund to meet the cost of immediate actions,” Modi said.

He said the member nations’ foreign secretaries, through embassies, can coordinate quickly to finalise the utilisation of this fund.

Sources later said the funds from India will be made available immediately.

The fund will be coordinated through embassies and it will be used for immediate mitigation of the disease, they said.

“We are assembling a Rapid Response Team of doctors and specialists in India, along with testing kits and other equipment. They will be on standby, to be placed at your disposal, if required,” Modi told the SAARC leaders.

India had set up an Integrated Disease Surveillance Portal to better trace possible virus carriers and the people they contacted and it could share this disease surveillance software with SAARC partners, Modi said.

“Looking ahead, we could create a common research platform, to coordinate research on controlling epidemic diseases within our South Asian region. The Indian Council of Medical Research can offer help coordinating such an exercise,” he said.

Modi also highlighted the steps taken by India to combat the virus. “We started screening people entering India from mid-January itself, while gradually increasing restrictions on travel,” Modi said.

Step-by-step approach helped avoid panic and India made special efforts to reach out to vulnerable groups, he said.

India also responded to the call of its people abroad and evacuated nearly 1,400 Indians from different countries, he said.

Modi also said India helped some citizens of neighbouring countries by evacuating them from coronavirus-hit nations.

What is IDSP?

The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) was initiated in assistance with the World Bank in 2004.

The scheme is aimed to strengthen disease surveillance for infectious diseases to detect and respond to outbreaks immediately. The Central Surveillance Unit (CSU) at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) receives disease outbreak reports from states / UTs on a weekly basis.

State / District Surveillance Units analyse this data weekly to interpret the disease trends and seasonality of diseases.

The scheme aims to strengthen / maintain decentralised laboratory-based IT enabled disease surveillance systems for epidemic-prone diseases to monitor disease trends and to detect and respond to outbreaks in early rising phase through trained Rapid Response Team (RRTs).

How did the other leaders respond?

Maldivian President Solih backed coordinated approach to deal with COVID-19, asserting that no country can deal with the situation alone.

Lankan President Rajapaksa said SAARC leaders should formulate a mechanism to help the economies of the region to tide over problems posed by coronavirus. He also proposed setting up a SAARC ministerial-level group to deal with issues related to coronavirus.

Hasina hailed Modi’s suggestions to deal with the pandemic and called for taking the initiative forward by more such video conferences, including one with health ministers of SAARC nations participating.

“Our collective efforts will help us devise a sound and robust strategy for SAARC region to fight coronavirus,” Nepal PM Oli said.

Bhutanese PM Lotay Tshering said that it was important for all countries of the region to be on the same page to combat coronavirus.

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