US VP Kamala Harris to deliver message of solidarity with people of India on Friday

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday will deliver a message of solidarity with the people of India, as the US partners with the country to save lives and hasten the end of the coronavirus pandemic, the State Department has said.

Harris is slated to deliver her address at the top of an online event “Bolstering US COVID Relief Efforts in India: Perspectives from the Diaspora” organised by the State Department.

Harris, 56, is the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected US Vice President.

“Kamala Harris will provide an opening message on US solidarity with the people of India as we partner to save lives & hasten the end of the pandemic,” the South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department announced on Wednesday.

The event on Friday noon local time will be hosted by Ervin Massinga, senior advisor in the South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department.

Massinga will provide an overview of the US government’s relief efforts and panelists will discuss commercial and civil society-led efforts to address the current emergency, what support will be needed to re-open India after the second wave, and how they can align efforts to bring the two countries closer together moving forward.

Harris’s remarks would be followed by a panel discussion featuring diaspora leaders including Virginia State Senator Ghazala Hashmi; Lata Krishnan from American Indian Foundation; Indiaspora founder M R Rangaswami and Gunisha Kaur, Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, Medical Director, Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights.