Indonesia Gets Additional Aid For Handling COVID-19 Of Rp1.1 Trillion From The US And 1.3 Million Vaccines From France

Illustration of the arrival of COVID-19 vaccine aid from the United States. (Screenshot of the Presidential Secretariat YouTube)

JAKARTA - If there are no obstacles and changes, it is planned that Indonesia will receive COVID-19 vaccine assistance from France, according to Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.

Foreign Minister Retno explained that the provision of vaccine assistance was a follow-up to the discussion between her and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on 22 July.

"Today I received information from Paris, if the French government decides to provide support for 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Indonesia," Foreign Minister Retno explained in a virtual press statement from Washington DC, United States (US) Thursday, August 8.

The delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine is planned to be carried out in several stages, with the first stage of delivery, according to Foreign Minister Retno, to be carried out at the end of August. The total is 1.3 million doses of vaccine.

"I express my appreciation and appreciation to the French government for the assistance provided to Indonesia," said Foreign Minister Retno.

Regarding the COVID-19 assistance from the United States, Foreign Minister Retno said that Uncle Sam's country was committed to providing additional aid worth US$81.6 million or around Rp. 1.1 trillion.

The assistance includes the provision of an additional US$30 million which was announced directly by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. As well as, support for therapeutic drugs from a US company worth 51.6 million US dollars.

To note, Foreign Minister Retno made a working visit to the United States since last July 31. During this visit, Foreign Minister Retno met with the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken, CIA Director William Burns to the US National Security Council (NSC) Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell.