S Jaishankar said on Wednesday, noting that Europe's support is "key" for lifting patents on the vaccines and to keep open the supply chains.
Speaking at a virtual interactive session along with Portuguese foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva, he also said that Europe needs to keep open the supply chains to boost manufacturing of the vaccines.
In reply to a question about a proposal at the WTO by India and South Africa to temporarily waive patents on the vaccines, Silva said the European Union was of the view that innovation and research needed to be preserved and signalled the grouping's reservations in lifting the protections.