Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Friday held a telephonic discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic with the Secretary General of the European External Action Service, Helga M. Schmid. The discussion came in the backdrop of a large scale evacuation of European Union (EU) citizens from major Indian cities over the past week.
“They exchanged notes on the situation and respective efforts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in the EU and India as well as coordination in the framework of G20, SAARC, etc,” said a source familiar with the exchange between the two top diplomats. EU has been part of India’s global dialogue to contain the crisis.
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India and EU skipped a summit in March as the COVID-19 crisis exploded across the world leading to the suspension of international travel. While several major EU countries have evacuated nationals from India, Indian citizens continue to remain in major European destinations as India has suspended commercial air service and declared that no citizen will be evacuated without a pre-flight COVID-19 test. Apart from the continental Europe, a large number of Indians remain stranded in East European countries like Latvia and Lithuania.
“Recognising the valued strategic partnership between India and the EU, the two sides agreed to maintain contacts towards consultation and cooperation at the bilateral level as well as in the international context,” said the official.
