Lord Eddie Lister, Boris Johnson’s special envoy to the Gulf countries visited India to secure millions of doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine being manufactured under license by India’s Serum Institute.
Lister and international affairs adviser David Quarrey met India’s foreign secretary Harsh Shringla in New Delhi to “discuss bilateral relations and outcomes” for Johnson’s planned visit to the country in April, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Lister, a Conservative peer and the U.K. prime minister’s special envoy for the Gulf, is expected to travel from there to Pune where he will visit the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. “Whitehall insiders confirmed that Lister would visit the Serum Institute this week to try to broker a deal on delivery of the UK’s AstraZeneca doses. Downing Street confirmed Lister was in India but declined to discuss details of the visit. “We obviously continue to talk to and work with other countries when it comes to vaccinations,” the prime minister’s spokesperson said.
