Making a strong pitch for SAARC nations to jointly combat COVID-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized to chalk out a common strategy.

Interacting with the leaders of the SAARC countries through video conference on Sunday, PM Modi said it is imperative for the nations to prepare to face the challenge together.

Heproposed the creation of a COVID-19 Emergency Fund based on voluntarycontributions from all the countries. India has made an initial offer of US $10million for the fund. The fund can be used by any of the partner countries tomeet the cost of immediate actions.

He informed the leaders ofSAARC countries that India is assembling a Rapid Response Team of doctors andspecialists for tackling the menace.

PM Modi suggested that existingmechanisms like SAARC Disaster Management Centre can be used to pool in bestpractices. He also suggested the creation of a common Research Platform tocoordinate research on controlling epidemic diseases within the South Asianregion.

The Prime Minister said that Indiahas not only successfully evacuated almost 1400 Indians from differentcountries but also evacuated some of the citizens of the neighbouring countriesin accordance with the 'neighbourhood first policy'.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinathanked Prime Minister Modi for bringing 23 Bangladeshi students back fromWuhan along with Indian students during the quarantine period.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solihthanked the Indian government for the medical assistance from India to dealwith COVID-19 cases and for evacuating nine Maldivians from Wuhan.