India, Israel agree on mutual recognition of Covid vaccines

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 18

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid in Tel Aviv on Monday and discussed regional and global issues of importance.

Speaking after the meeting, Jaishankar said news has come that officials from both sides have agreed on the resumption of the India-Israel free trade negotiations. The talks will start in November and “they are very confident” that they would be able to conclude the negotiations by next June. “So it’s something that we very much look forward to,” he said.

He said both sides agreed to, in principle, the mutual recognition of vaccine certification process. While the modalities are being worked out, Israel would allow people with Covishield to travel to Israel.

Jaishankar hailed Israel’s joining of the International solar alliance, saying it will bring “value to the table”. However, the MEA gave no details about other issues discussed at the meeting which took place ahead of the virtual meeting of Foreign Ministers from the US, Israel, UAE and India.

Earlier, he unveiled the “Bhoodan Grove” plaque at the Jerusalem Forest in memory of Indian leaders who visited Israel many times to study the social structure of different forms of Israel’s communal and cooperative institutions — “Kibbutzim and Moshavim” — to implement the Bhoodan and Gramdan ideals of the Sarvodaya movement in India.

One of its prominent proponents, Jayaprakash Narayan, had visited Israel in 1958 as the guest of Histadrut, the Israel Federation of Labour. Jaishankar described the visit as “an aspect of shared history which hasn’t received the attention it deserved” and said the unveiling of the plaque was “timely” as last year was the 125th birth anniversary of its main proponent Acharya Vinoba Bhave.

EAM Unveils ‘Bhoodan Grove’ plaque

• EAM Jaishankar’s visit coincides with the IAF’s participation in Israel’s ‘Blue Flag 2021’ exercise
• This year’s exercise will see the first-ever deployment of an Indian and German fighter squadron in Israel
• He unveiled ‘Bhoodan Grove’ plaque at the Jerusalem Forest in memory of Indian leaders who visited Israel to study the social structure of different forms of Israel’s communal and cooperative institutions