Netherlands’ ambassador to India Marten van den Berg on Thursday said both the countries are looking to collaborate on healthcare and trade, while also revealing that they are working closely with Serum Institute of India (SII) on research and development of Covid-19 vaccines.
Asked if there’s a need to consider dropping patent waivers on Covid vaccines, the envoy in an exclusive conversation with News18 said, “We all very much share the goal of vaccinating everyone. We are all together in the same boat. So the only way to get out of it safely is getting everyone in the world vaccinated.”
“But the discussion on vaccinations is much broader and more complex. So the short term is really about increasing production,” he added.
The envoy also said that a patent freeze will not contribute in the short term and that “there needs to be more focus on removing import barriers for every resilient supply chain”.
On Tuesday, in a significant move, BRICS, a five-nation grouping, supported a proposal by India and South Africa to temporarily waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines, calling for their equitable access and distribution while also ensuring transparency on prices.
Ways to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, including sharing technology to boost production of vaccines and improving supply chains for medical products, figured prominently at a virtual meeting of the foreign ministers of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) countries.
Importance of trade and investment agreements
The Netherlands’ ambassador also highlighted the role India can play with regard to vaccine production and stressed the importance of collaborative research on vaccine development.
“Now, first, it’s very important that we scale up our production. India is very important in terms of… manufacturing of vaccines. So together the EU and India, for example, are going to strengthen the resilience of supply chains. So that’s very important in terms of collaborating in trade policies in the longer run. I think it’s very important to do collaborative research on vaccine development,” he said.
On India and EU finally resuming free trade pact talks after eight years this week, the envoy said, “I think it was very important that the EU and India agreed to again start negotiations on a trade agreement, but also a separate track on an investment agreement and also on geographical indications.”
Emphasising further, the envoy said, “…it’s very important that the EU and India start negotiations because we know that trade agreements really improve trade relationships and investment agreements really have a positive contribution to investments.”
“…there are a lot of Dutch companies who are already investing, but also would like to expand investment in India with the investment agreements,” he added.
‘Close collaboration’ with SII
The Dutch ambassador also informed about the country’s “close collaboration” with Pune-based Serum Institute of India with regard to vaccine research.
“The Serum Institute, of course, very well known in India, also has a resource base in the Netherlands. So we have a very close collaboration. And also we’re looking for increasing our collaborative research. It is a very important topic in collaboration between the Netherlands and India. And I think it’s key to address the challenges of conflicts,” he said.
“Besides health, we do see a lot of other areas where we have close collaboration between the Netherlands and India, for example, water, agriculture, energy and climate,” he added.
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