PHNOM PENH: The Republic of India handed over 325,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Cambodia on Tuesday morning, 12 April 2022. At the handover ceremony, the Indian Ambassador to Cambodia praised Prime Minister Hun Sen and said that he really deserves to be commended for vaccinating his people as soon as possible.

The AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine handover ceremony took place at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, and was presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Indian Ambassador to Cambodia, Devyani Khobragade.

Ambassador Khobragade said that this donation of 325,000 vaccine doses to Cambodia is part of India’s own goodwill initiative, as well as the quadrilateral vaccine initiative between India, the United States, Australia and Japan to send one billion Covid-19 vaccines to countries across Asia, which includes providing support to Cambodia as well.

She said, "Cambodians are beginning to gather without restrictions on population, and economic activity is starting to re-open. We thank the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has worked tirelessly to lead the Ministry of Health to manage the Covid-19 pandemic in Cambodia. The Royal Government of Cambodia, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, deserves to be commended for vaccinating its people at the fastest rate ever."

Prime Minister Hun Sen thanked India and the countries in the quadrilateral vaccine initiative for providing a series of vaccine donations to Cambodia. He said that Cambodia considers vaccination a key strategy to building a strong community immune system against Covid-19, a method which has been effective in curbing the spread of the Omicron variant in Cambodia.

He said, "We must not forget that many countries are still affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and have not yet been able to fully recover their socio-economic status. Prolonged outbreaks are a risk for all of us, one that could lead to a recurrence of Covid-19 as well as a fall into a socio-economic crisis. In this spirit, Cambodia encourages the promotion and acceleration of vaccinations and building community resilience, which is an appropriate and effective response.”

He added that India has been a partner and a strong friend of Cambodia’s since 1981. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, India has been helping Cambodia recover socio-economically until now.

The quadrilateral vaccine initiative was an agreement made between the ‘Quad’ group countries, which includes India, Australia, Japan and the United States. Collectively, the Quad have already provided nearly five million vaccines to Cambodia.

Cambodia spent eight months vaccinating its population, helping to create a social resilience system that allowed for the official reopening of the country on 1 November 2021. As of Monday, 11 April 2022, Cambodia vaccinated 92.79% of its 16 million population. The vaccines administered in Cambodia are Sinopharm, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Moderna and Pfizer.