Bangladeshi army receives 1st batch of COVID-19 vaccines from China

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Bangladesh’s military this week received a consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from China for the first time, said the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka.

“To implement Chinese President Xi Jinping's important declaration on making China's COVID-19 vaccine a global public good, at the request of the Bangladeshi armed forces, a batch of COVID-19 vaccines provided by the Chinese People's Liberation Army was delivered to Dhaka on Aug. 29,” the embassy said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mentioning it as the first foreign military assistance to Bangladesh’s army in addressing the pandemic, the statement underlined that an important segment in bilateral ties between China and Bangladesh is military-to-military relations.

“The Chinese military has always attached great importance to strengthening the bilateral military exchanges and cooperation,” it read, adding that it has made positive contributions to the consolidation and development of bilateral relations.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Bangladesh in March 2020, the Chinese army has provided emergency medical assistance to its Bangladeshi counterpart that includes medical and personal protective equipment.

Bangladesh has so far recorded 1.5 million infections and 26,195 deaths.