Ukraine has requested India for supply of more medicines, delivery to begin soon: S Jaishankar

Ukraine has requested India for supply of more medicines and their delivery would begin soon External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar informed Lok Sabha on WednesdayResponding to a discussion on the situation in Ukraine Jaishankar said the ground situation in that country calls for urgent humanitarian relief and pointed out that India has already provided 90 tonnes of relief materialI was glad to see that many members yesterday noted it and appreciated it We did it even while we were in the middle of an evacuation Jaishankar saidUkrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko called me a few days ago to request for supply of more medicines The House will be glad to know that this is underway and delivery should start very soon he saidHe said India will work with the international community and partner countries to mitigate the economic hardships that are resulting from this conflictObviously our focus is to soften its impact on our own economy But equally there are partners who are going through very tough times Coordinating on lowering energy prices is one collective initiative In the case of a neighbour like Sri Lanka we are even supplying fuel and food on credit he saidNoting that food security is another major concern Jaishankar said India has been approached for the supply of wheat and sugar by many countries and it is responding positivelyThe House will be glad to know that whether it is basmati rice nonbasmati rice sugar wheat our exports in the last quarter have gone up very very substantially he saidWe have delivered for the world in terms of vaccines We did it earlier for medicines So I would like to assure the House through you that we will also step forward where global demands for food grains and other materials are concerned and we will do it in a manner that is helpful to the global economy which will not take undue advantage of countries in distress Jaishankar saidUnderlining that there are issues like the supply of edible oil Jaishankar said commercial diplomacy has to find additional sources to address this disruptionThere could be more such examples in the days to come I would like to apprise this House that whether it is the supply of lentils edible oils or the requirement of raw materials for fertilisers we are really looking today in different ways at global markets from Mercosur to Kazakhstan Tanzania Australia and Canada to see how we can lighten the burden for the common people in India as a result of this crisis he saidOn Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhurys query as to whether India is considering RupeeRouble trade mechanism Jaishankar said the Finance Ministry is examining the issue and will take a call on itOur effort today is to stabilise economic transactions between India and Russia because it is very important for us Russia is a very important partner in a variety of areas I think all members understand that he saidSo at the moment there is an InterMinisterial Group which is led by the Finance Ministry seeing how the payments issue can be best addressed There are experiences from the past which are relevant in this regard But I think this is quite honestly an issue where the Finance Minister would finally have to take a call he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever