Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives, Sunjay Sudhir, has indicated that Maldives will be a priority when an India-made vaccine is developed.

Sudhir implied this during an exclusive interview to RaajjeTV’s Maldives Weekly, to be aired at 11pm on Saturday.

Responding to a question in relation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech on August 15 where he revealed that an India-based vaccine for Covid-19 “will be out soon” and how much of a priority Maldives will be following this, the high commissioner said that “it is an established fact that [India has] time and again been the first responder to crisis [in Maldives].”

He explained that a similar situation had emerged right before the Covid-19 pandemic, where Maldivian authorities had requested an urgent requirement of the measles vaccines.

Sudhir said that Indian authorities were able to get 30,000 doses of the vaccines within 72 hours.

While the high commissioner added that he is certain “this trend will continue," he did not officially confirm the matter.

India’s assistance to Maldives amid the Covid-19 pandemic has been immense, from evacuation of Maldivians stranded in Wuhan, China where Covid-19 was first discovered to sending medical experts and providing essentials. Further, India is also allowing Maldivian patients requiring advanced medical care to travel there despite border closure.