PM Modi Dials Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Discusses fallout of COVID-19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a phone call today with Prime Minister of Ethiopia Dr Abiy Ahmed Ali. PM Modi recalled the close ties between India and Ethiopia; and the excellent development partnership between the two nations. The two leaders discussed the domestic, regional and global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. They expressed solidarity with each other during the health crisis. Above all, Prime Minister Modi assured his Ethiopian counterpart of Indian support to Ethiopia; for ensuring supplies of essential medicines and ameliorating the economic impact of the pandemic.

The phone call between the two leaders is part of India’s outreach towards the rest of the world; against the backdrop of a view that current global order is ill-equipped to deal with a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondly, PM Modi has spoken of the need to reform multilateral institutions in the past.

PM Modi reiterated this in recent days including during a virtual meeting of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) leaders on May 5, 2020. Modi in his speech to NAM leaders on Monday said that India had so far cleared the dispatch of medicines –the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol – to 123 countries including 59 countries of the NAM grouping. Many of these countries were in Africa. Separately, foreign minister S. Jaishankar spoke to his Tajik counterpart Sirojiddin Muhriddin on May 6, 2020.