Biden praises PM Modi for India's success amid China's failure on Covid

US President Joe Biden contrasted "India's success with China's failure" in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a closed-door session of the Quad summit in Tokyo on Tuesday, As per media report, Biden praised PM Modi for handling the Covid pandemic "successfully, in a democratic manner". He contrasted India's success with China's failure to handle the pandemic, though both countries are of comparable size, the official reportedly said. PM Modi's success has shown the world that democracies can deliver and busted the "myth that autocracies like China and Russia can handle the rapidly changing world better because their leadership can take and implement decisions without going through lengthy democratic processes", the official was quoted as saying.

According to the official, the remarks from President Biden appeared to be unscripted, as he made a special intervention to say this before his prepared remarks.India has reported 5.24 lakh COVID-19 deaths - the most after the United States and Brazil - with more than 4.3 crore infections. Actual infections are believed to be much higher in the country of 135 crore people. PM Modi's government has rejected the WHO estimate released earlier this month that 47 lakh people died in India as a result of the pandemic until last year, when hospitals ran out of oxygen and beds due to a record wave driven by the Delta variant.

Japanese PM Fumio Kishida appreciated India's contribution. He further recalled that Indian-made vaccines that were delivered under the QUAD Vaccine initiative were received with gratitude in Thailand and Cambodia recently. He noted that in Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen himself attended the handing over ceremony of COVID-19 vaccines.