As it races against time to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, the US is working "very closely" with India on the project, President Donald Trump has said.

Unveiling Operation Warp Speed to ready a vaccine by the end of the year, Trump said that "many of the great scientists, researchers" from the US Indian community were working on the project.

Underlining the close cooperation between the two countries in fighting "the common enemy", he had tweeted earlier that the US was donating ventilators used to treat COVID-19 patients to India.

India, for its part, had lifted a ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine at the personal request of Trump and sent 3.5 million tablets and nine tonnes of ingredients to manufacture it last month.

Trump made a pledge to make the vaccine available to the rest of the world at an affordable cost. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday thanked President Donald Trump for his remarks. "This pandemic is being fought collectively by all of us," he tweeted.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and apps to get latest updates.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever