As China reels under deadly coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has conveyed to Chinese President Xi Jinping India's readiness to provide assistance to the country to deal with the crisis, an official source told news agency PTI.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday, 9 February, wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping, expressing solidarity with the people of China and offering India’s assistance, in order to deal with the epidemic.
Further, in the letter, PM Modi offers condolences over the loss of lives in the country due to coronavirus.
PM Modi also thanked China for its corporation and assistance in helping 650 Indian citizens out of the Hubei province of China.
China on Monday, 10 February, appreciated PM Modi's letter to President Xi Jinping, saying it "fully demonstrated" New Delhi's friendship with Beijing.
"We thank and appreciate India's support for China's fight against the NCP Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia, the official name for coronavirus," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.
“India’s acts of goodwill fully demonstrate its friendship with China,”Geng Shuang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman
"We stand ready to work with India and other members of the international community to jointly tackle fight the epidemic and safeguard regional and global public health security," Geng said.
Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Misri told the Indian media here on Monday that India was in touch with Chinese officials to find out the immediate requirements to deal with the epidemic.
The death toll in China's coronavirus outbreak has gone up to 908 with 97 new fatalities reported mostly in the worst-affected Hubei province and the confirmed cases of infection crossing 40,000, Chinese health officials said on Monday.
Though the epicentre of the outbreak was Hubei province, the virus has spread to almost every province in China, as well as around 25 countries in the world, forcing the World Health Organization to declare it a global emergency.
Several countries have evacuated their citizens from China and restricted movement of people and goods to and from the country.
India too, has put restrictions on the movement of people to and from China as part of precautionary measures to contain the spread of the virus.
In an interview to PTI, Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong had said that China is ready to work with India to strengthen communication and coordination, and to safeguard the health and safety of Indian citizens in China.
A team of international experts led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is expected to arrive in China on Monday night to assist the Chinese health officials to contain the spread of coronavirus outbreak.
"I've just been at the airport seeing off members of an advance team for the WHO-led 2019nCoV international expert mission to China, headed by Dr Bruce Aylward, veteran of past public health emergencies," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet.
Admitting that there could be a short-term impact of the epidemic on China's economy, he said the country's internal resilience is growing and it has ample resources and policy tools to cope with the economic volatility resulting from the outbreak.
(With PTI Input)
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