India, UK discuss COVID vaccine certification process, 'no technical concerns'
The meeting held days after India warned of imposing retaliatory action if the UK does not revise its Covid-19 quarantine rules for Indians.
FollowNew Delhi: Amidst the UK’s vaccine racism controversy, India and the United Kingdom had a discussion over the each other’s certification process on Thursday.
India’s CoWin chairman RS Sharm and British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis discussed the issues, wherein the two sides did not raise any technical concerns over the certification process.
After the meeting Ellis in a tweet said, “Excellent technical discussions with @rssharma3 @AyushmanNHA. Neither side raised technical concerns with each other’s certification process. An important step forward in our joint aim to facilitate travel and fully protect public health of UK and India.”
The meeting was held days after India warned of imposing retaliatory action if the UK does not revise its Covid-19 quarantine rules for Indians.
“Echoing his excellency @AlexWEllis’s views, this will be instrumental in resuming socio-economic activities between India and UK. We also look forward to deepening ties between @AyushmanNHA and @NHSX, as we collaborate to build a digital continuum of healthcare services,” CoWin chairman RS Sharma said.
Last week, Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar and UK’s foreign secretary Liz Truss discussed a number of issues related to bilateral, regional and global.
During the meeting, Jaishankar raised the discriminatory travel rules and urged for early resolution of quarantine issue in mutual interest.
A day ahead of leaving for the US, Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had termed it as discriminatory for not recognising the Covishield.
“The non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminating policy and impacts our citizens travelling to the UK. The External Affairs Minister has raised the issue strongly with the new UK foreign secretary. I am told that certain assurances have been given that this issue will be resolved,” he told the reporters in Delhi.
There was a report that the UK doesn’t have any issue with the Covishield but they do have with the certification process. The vaccine is a formulation of UK-based Oxford and AstraZeneca's vaccine and being manufactured by Pune-based SII.
NOTE: Asianet News humbly requests everyone to wear masks, sanitize, maintain social distancing and get vaccinated as soon as eligible. Together we can and will break the chain #ANCares #IndiaFightsCorona
