The coronavirus pandemic is stretching much of the world's governmental capacity and terrorists are likely to exploit the situation including by fostering communal tension, Australian High Commissioner-designate Barry O'Farrell said on Wednesday.
In an address at the National Defence College through video-conference, O'Farrell also said India may be one of the most successful developing countries in managing the pandemic and lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's global outreach to deal with it.
He said Modi is also one of the leading voices shaping the G20 into a body instrumental in leading the world into post-COVID-19 recovery, and was an early voice advocating for reforms to the World Health Organisation.
"We've seen some remarkable leadership from India since this crisis began. The world is facing an unprecedented health challenge for which no government has a perfect answer," O'Farrell said.
It's laudable not just that the Indian government acted so quickly to stem the virus's spread, but also that it continues working to mitigate the lockdown's impact on India's most vulnerable. It's an enormous challenge for the world's most populous nation," he added.
The diplomat said it was Modi who led nations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to coordinate pandemic responses - and establish the SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund - almost as soon as the crisis began.
Talking about impact of the coronavirus crisis on geo-politics, O'Farrell said it will take time to play out, but said, "I see a US far more cautious about exercising global leadership than in the past."