New Delhi: India, which had earlier toughened its stand on the European Union Covid passport, on Friday said New Delhi expects its vaccination certificate would be recognized by the EU on a reciprocal basis.
“Our expectation is that Indians vaccinated through our domestic vaccination program would be treated at par with those vaccinated in the EU and vaccination certificate would be recognized by EU on a reciprocal basis,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
Meanwhile, Bagchi also informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is “making all efforts to augment vaccine production”.
“Currently, our priority remains on purposing domestic production as part of the domestic vaccination program,” he added.
The MEA official’s remarks come as India had earlier told the EU nations that it would allow the travellers from its member nations in India without mandatory quarantine only on the basis of reciprocity.
New Delhi had also conveyed to the EU that they need to include India-made vaccines Covishield and Covaxin in their ‘Green Pass’ that comes into effect from July.
Amid the ongoing tussle between India and the EU over 'green pass' for Covid vaccines, nine European countries have added Covishield to their list of approved vaccines.
The European nations that have included Covishield include seven EU member states – Spain, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Estonia, Slovenia and Austria – besides two non-member states – Switzerland and Iceland.
This means the people inoculated with Covishield will be allowed to travel to these nations.
Earlier, the European Union countries had accepted only four vaccines – Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Janssen – approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).