New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that India is fighting against the Covid- 19 virus, but he wanted to focus only on the positives, he touched upon the issue of terror, calling it another deadly virus which “Some people” were trying to spread.

He spoke NAM member states through a video message about fake news and doctored videos used to divide communities and countries, in an allusion to recent developments in the Gulf. This was Modi’s first appearance in an NAM at the summit level. In what has been seeing as a decisive foreign policy shift, he had skipped the regular NAM summits in 2016 and 2019. India’s civilization sees the whole world as one family. As we care for our own citizens, we are extending help to other countries.

We have promoted coordination in our immediate neighbourhood and we are organizing online training to share India’s medical expertise with many others, he said. India is regarded as a pharmacy of the world, especially for affordable medicines, said Modi. India’s long standing commitments to the principles and values of NAMs as one of its leading founding members. The leaders at the meeting also announced the creation of a task force to identify needs and requirements of members’ state trough the establishment of a common data base reflecting their basic medical, social and humanitarian needs in the fight against Covid- 19.

Modi also urged NAM to call upon the international community and the WHO to focus on building health capacity in developing countries. We should ensure equitable, affordable and timely access to health products and technologies for all, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was joined by over 30 other heads of states and Government and other leaders including from member states in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe at the meeting. Following the summit, the leaders adopted a declaration underlining the importance of international solidarity in the fight against Covid- 19.