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Coronavirus pandemic

Russia, India to fast-track mutual recognition of vaccination certificates — statement

The Sides expressed confidence that early mutual recognition of COVID vaccination certificates will further facilitate movement of persons between the two countries and agreed to fast track the formalities in this regard

MOSCOW, December 6./TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have agreed to speed up work to formalize the mutual recognition of coronavirus vaccination certificates.

"The Sides expressed confidence that early mutual recognition of COVID vaccination certificates will further facilitate movement of persons between the two countries and agreed to fast track the formalities in this regard," says a joint statement adopted after their talks.

Presently, India uses three vaccines for the vaccination of its population - Covishield, developed by British-Swedish AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, Covaxin manufactured by India’s Bharat Biotech, as well as the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. Besides, two US vaccines from Moderna and Johnson&Johnson were recently approved for the emergency use, but they are not used for the vaccination for the time being.

Earlier on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that negotiations on the production of Russian Sputnik Light were nearing completion. The agreement on the production of the two-component vaccine Sputnik V in the republic is also being implemented, the minister added. "Quite a large scale is expected - around hundred million doses each year," he said.

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