5/ Also on the first USG flight: "first tranche of a planned 20,000 treatment courses of the antiviral drug rem"desivir to help treat hospitalized patients.
6/ Indian Foreign Secretary @HarshShringla notes GoI initially expecting 3 special flights from the US over next few days...
8/ Both the flights that SecDef Austin mentioned have now landed in Delhi, where customs is fast tracking clearance for these assistance flights from various countries.
1/ I'm going to elaborate a bit on this & why the relative @WHNSC@StateDept@jakejsullivan@SecBlinken silence on this publicly cld matter & potentially affect the Biden admin's other goals w/ India.
[FONOPgate - esp in comparison - was a storm in a teacup]
US export restrictions aren't cause of India's COVID crisis & not clear if lifting them will solve immed prob (cuz affects Novavax prod). But they will hv an adverse effect down the line on global vaccination efforts & they're already being blamed – in some cases, instrumentally.
3/ This US export restrictions issue & India has come up in pressers. On March 12, separately NSA Jake Sullivan & FonSec Shringla were asked about it. It also came up in the WH press briefing yesterday.
Not many details other than GoI noting it'd been taken up bilaterally.
1/ Cuz of Quad, been some debate abt the extent of 🇦🇺🇮🇳🇯🇵🇺🇸 coop in 2004/Tsunami Core Group.
2005, Jt Secy (AMS) S. Jaishankar:
- TCG coordinated int'l reax
- daily 📞, 🇮🇳: FS
- initially 🇦🇺🇮🇳🇯🇵🇺🇸, then + 🇨🇦🇳🇱🇺🇳
- US-IND coord re Sri Lanka
- Indian liaisons in Thailand, PACOM
2/ I've covered Quad 1.0's origins in the Tsunami Core Group in my WOTR piece bit.ly/31062Xh
3/ This was then Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, the Indian lead on the Tsunami Core Group, on the group at a press briefing on Jan. 5, 2005 (worth reading in full for the broader response effort) mea.gov.in/media-briefing…
.@ryanl_hass: "Implicit in the structure of the [#Quad] agenda will be a recognition that the US & others will enjoy greater attraction & influence by delivering solutions to problems than by presenting opposition to China" bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
.@ryanl_hass: "...If the coordinated efforts of the Quad countries spurs China to up its efforts to deliver solutions to regional challenges, that’s all to the better.” bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Noone believes the Quad has nothing to do w/ China; & denials are only seen as "the Quad doth protest too much."
But there is a nuance here that Ryan alludes to -- the Quad is not about containing China; it *is* in part about shaping China's behavior.