US Vice President Kamala Harris has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Biden administration will be sending COVID-19 vaccines to India in what was likely their first interaction. Modi thanked her for the support from the US government and the Indian diaspora.

The electronic conversation took place as President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that India will receive COVID-19 vaccines directly from the US stockpile, the White House said.

Modi tweeted, “I deeply appreciate the assurance of vaccine supplies to India as part of the US Strategy for Global Vaccine Sharing. I also thanked her for all the support and solidarity from the US government, businesses and Indian diaspora.”

Biden, who has faced international and domestic pressure to share its surplus vaccines, said he was releasing the first set of 25 million doses of which six million will be shared between India, South Korea, Mexico and Canada.

The six million “will be shared directly with countries experiencing surges, those in crisis, and other partners and neighbours,” he said without a breakdown of how many will go to India.

His Spokesperson Jen Psaki said that the vaccines could go out as soon as Thursday “as we are working to operationalise this, which is kind of a historic Herculean effort.”

Harris, the first Indian American politician to rise to the second highest position in a US administration, has spoken to several international leaders, but till Thursday there had been no mention by the White House of a conversation with Modi, whom she has criticised in the past.

The White House said that she also spoke to presidents of Mexico, Guatemala and Trinidad.

Modi tweeted that Harris and he “discussed ongoing efforts to further strengthen India-US vaccine cooperation, and the potential of our partnership to contribute to post-Covid global health and economic recovery.”

The Quad -- made up of India, the US, Japan and Australia -- announced a plan in March for India to manufacture one billion vaccines with US and Japanese financing to be distributed to Asian countries using Australian logistics.

Biden said in his announcement that seven million doses will be earmarked for South and Southeast Asia, but did not specify the recipients.

These will be distributed through COVAX, the international consortium for providing vaccines to developing countries.

Several members of Congress, including Indian Americans Raja Krishnamoorthi and Pramila Jayapal, have asked Biden to send vaccines to India, which has been facing a deadly second wave surge of the pandemic which is now on the wane.

While most of the requests for sending vaccines to India focused on the 60 million AstraZeneca product in the US stockpile, Psaki said that the vaccines being donated will be a mix of those approved for use in the US -- the products of Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer. Psaki said that the administration was waiting for FDA approval to send the AstraZeneca vaccines abroad.

Biden had so far resisted sharing the vaccines globally – except with Canada and Mexico – because he wanted to be sure that under any eventuality there would be enough for all Americans. That was in contrast to India, Russia and China that made diplomatic headway by donating vaccines and it led to domestic criticism of Biden.

Now nearly half the population of the US has been vaccinated, according to the Centres for Disease Control, giving him breathing space. 

Referring to the 25 million doses that the US has committed to sending abroad, Psaki said, “That is five times the number of doses, any other country is committed to sharing.”

However, India has sent abroad 66 million vaccine doses to over 120 countries before stopping its donations and exports last month when it was overwhelmed by the pandemic (SAM)