Japan has promised to send 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Indonesia early next month, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi announced on Tuesday as the archipelago continues to see an alarming surge in outbreaks and scrambles to secure more vaccines and medicines.

Retno said she had been speaking with her Japanese and Indian counterparts on Monday ahead of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting the following day, with the respective discussions focusing on vaccine-sharing arrangements and relaxing export restrictions on COVID-19 drugs.

“As a result of intensive communication and meetings with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Japan will donate around 2 million doses of finished vaccines to Indonesia, of which 1 million doses are planned to arrive by July 1, while a second shipment is scheduled to arrive in mid-July,” Retno said in a statement on Tuesday morning.

Her meeting with Japan also explored cooperation on COVID-19 therapeutic drugs, with Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi promising to look into the possibility of providing the drugs Indonesia needs the most.

While the Indonesian Foreign Ministry has confirmed AstraZeneca as the vaccine product Japan would be sharing with Indonesia, neither country has specified which drugs would be distributed to Indonesia.

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Japan has previously supplied 12,200 Avigan tablets to Indonesia for treating COVID-19 at the onset of the pandemic last year. Avigan is the brand name of the influenza antiviral medication favipiravir produced by Japanese drugmaker Fujifilm Toyama Chemical Co., and is believed to be effective in relieving COVID-19 symptoms.

Meanwhile, in her meeting with Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Retno lobbied the Indian government on relaxing its export restrictions on COVID-19 drugs.

“I expressed my hope that export permits will be granted for some therapeutic drugs [...] that Indonesia currently needs,” said Retno.

“Indonesia's request was [taken] positively by India, and Indonesia has submitted details of the currently required medicines,” she added.

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In early April when India was facing a devastating second wave of infections exacerbated by the more contagious Delta variant, it imposed temporary restrictions on exports of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutic medicines. These included remdesivir, one of the first drugs to show relative promise in shortening the recovery time for some COVID-19 patients.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), nearly 40 percent of registered facilities that manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients are located in India and China.

Indonesia is currently experiencing a wider and deadlier second wave of the coronavirus with more than 20,000 new infections and hundreds of deaths reported every day, exhausting the availability of hospital beds in many parts of Java.

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Meanwhile, Indonesia has called for stronger public health diplomacy at the G20 meeting, as the high level of vaccine inequity placed different expectations on developed and developing countries.

“The emergence of new variants further encourages the world to speed up vaccination equally. In this regard, Indonesia continues to encourage the implementation of equal access to vaccines for all countries,” Retno said.

Indonesia suggested that countries should share their vaccine supplies with those that needed them and also support the proposed patent waiver to temporarily suspend intellectual property for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutic drugs.

Retno also urged participating countries to close the financing gap for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a global collaboration framework led by the World Health Organization that brings various parties together “to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines”.